UC-NRLF 


B    3    UT7    fiflb 


,^'Sf^<^;>y^^Ts\^^^\^\\^^::^ 


GIFT    OF 
JANE  KoSATHER 


FIVE  YEARS  A  CAVALRYMAN: 


OR, 


Sketches  of  Regular  Army  Life  on  the  Texas  Frontier, 


TWENTY   ODD    YEARS   AGO. 


BY 


H.  H.  McCOXXELL, 

Late  Sixth  U.  S.  Cavulri/. 


JACKSBORO,  TEXAS: 

J.  N.  KOGEKS  &  CO.,  PRINTERS. 

1889. 


y 


>- 


Eutered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1888,  by 

II.   H.  McCONXELI,, 

ill  the  office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Wasliington. 


462218 


DED/CA  TION. 


TO    THE 

OFFICERS  AND  MEX 

OK   THE 

SIXTH  UNITED  STATES  CAVALRY, 

AND  TO  THE 

OLD  SETTLERS 

ON'  THE 

FRONTIER  OF  TEXAS, 

Still  on  This  Side, 

THESE  SKETCHES 

AKE 

Rcspectfulhj  Dedicated 

1$Y  THE 

AUTHOR. 


PREFACE. 


^^O  apology  is  needed  for  these  sketches,  but  a  word 
regarding  them  may  be  in  place.  The  last  few 
years  have  witnessed  an  overwhelming  flood  of  litera- 
ture pertaining  to  the  late  war,  but  little,  however,  has 
ever  been  written  illustrating  phases  of  the  life  of  the 
regular  soldier  on  the  frontier  in  times  of  peace. 

The  author  joined  the  regular  army  just  after  the 
close  of  the  war,  and  during  his  term  of  service  on  the 
Texas  frontier  kept  minutes  of  the  scenes  passing 
around  him — more  or  less  imperfect,  perhaps,  in  the 
manner^  but,  to  the  best  of  his  knowledge  and  belief, 
correct  as  to  the  matter — and  as  the  section  of  country 
he  became  familiar  with,  has  in  the  time  elapsed  since 
the  sketches  were  written  undergone  a  wonderful 
change — from  the  comparatively  untracked  wilderness 
of  18G6,  to  the  settled  and  progressive  civilization  of 
1889 — it  is  hoped  they  will  interest  the  "old-timer"  who 
has  been  "through  it  all,"  and  who  can  look  back  in 
retrospect  and  vouch  for  the  faithfulness  of  the  de- 
scriptions given ;  and  also  hoped  that  the  "newcomer" 
as  well,  will  read  them  with  wondering  interest  at  the 
development  he  finds  here  in  contrast  to  the  crude 
simplicity  existing  a  few  years  since. 

And  if  any  of  the  members  of  the  various  regiments — - 
the  Fourth,  Sixth,  and  Tenth  Cavalry,  the  Tenth, 
Eleventh,  Seventeenth,  or  Thirty-Fifth  Infantry — who 
have  at  one  time  or  another  "soldiered"  amid  these 


Viii  PREFACE. 

scenes,  should  hapi)eii  to  read  what  is  here  written — 
and  should  it  serve  to  while  away  an  hour  of  monotony, 
or  bring  back  a  pleasant  recollection  of  other  days — the 
l)urpose  of  the  author  will  have  been  served. 

He  believes  he  has  "  nothing  extenuated  nor  aught  set 
down  in  malice,"  and  has  only  related  what  came  under 
his  own  observation  or  within  his  own  experience,  and 
told  it  imi)artially.  And  with  the  hoi)e  that  at  the  last 
great  muster  one  and  all  may  be  found  in  line,  not  a 
single  one  marked  "absent  without  leave,"  nor  "in 
confinement,"  nor  "awaiting  sentence,"  the  author  sends 
forth  his  sketches,  asking  for  them  a  favorable  recep- 
tion, if  found  worthy. 

H.  H.  McCONNELL. 

Jacksboro,  Texas,  Sejyf.  1,  1889. 


FIVE  YEARS  A  CAVALRYMAN. 


FIVE  YEARS  A  CAVALRYMAN. 


CHAPTP^E  I. 


OFF  TO  CARLISLE — FRESH  FISH — THE  BARRACKS — 
FELLOW  SOLDIERS — TOUGHS — TATTOO — TAPS — THE 
BOUNTY  JUMPER — BULLY  WELCH — THE  ROUTINE 
OF  A  DAY  —  FLESH  POTS — RUMORS — KNAPSACKS 
PACKED — OFF  FOR  THE  FRONTIER. 

The  morning  of  a  beautiful  day  in  October,  186-, 
found  me  on  the  cars  of  the  Pennsylvania  Eailroad.  in 
company  with  six  or  seven  other  individuals,  bound  for 
the  same  destinp^tion  as  myself,  all  in  charge  of  a 
Sergeant  of  the  regular  army,  who  was  conducting  the 
party  to  the  Cavalry  Barracks  at  Carlisle,  Pennsylvania, 
at  that  time  the  rendezvous  for  all  recruits  enlisted  in 
the  mounted  branch  of  the  regular  service. 

The  motives  that  may  have  induced  me  to  place  my- 
self in  so  unenviable  a  position  as  a  "  recruit "  in  the 
ranks  of  the  army  are  not  pertinent  to  these  sketches, 
and  need  not  be  entered  into.  The  fact  remained,  and 
I  accepted  the  situation,  determined  to  see  all  the 
sunny  side  of  army  life,  and  to  bear  its  shady  aspects 
with  a  brave  heart,  for  I  knew  pretty  well  in  advance 
the  many  hardships,  discomforts  and  long  weary  days 


12  FIV^;  f  ^App   4   6AVAI.RYMAN. 

that  were  implied  in  the  words,  "during  my  term  of 


77 


service. 

About  five  in  the  afternoon  we  reached  Carlisle  and 
marched  out  to  the  barracks,  situated  a  mile  from  the 
station.  As  we  entered  the  garrison  and  marched  past 
the  guard-house  we  were  greeted  with  cries  of  "  fresh 
fish,"  "  greenies,"  etc.,  which  reminded  one  very  vividly 
of  the  congratulations  extended  by  the  unfortunate 
inmates  of  Libby  or  Andersonville,  in  the  days  of  the 
war,  to  the  fresh  arrivals  consequent  on  some  new 
disaster  to  the  Federal  arms. 

The  party  having  been  reported  to  the  Adjutant,  we 
were  marched  to  the  portion  of  the  barracks  designated 
for  our  use  and  turned  over  to  the  Sergeant  in  charge. 
A  very  disagreeable  looking  Corporal  having  taken 
down  a  list  of  our  names,  we  were  conducted  to  the 
kitchen  and  had  our  supper,  namely,  about  one  quart 
of  an  infusion,  called  tea,  and  a  slice  of  bread.  This 
dispatched,  were  marched  to  the  Quartermaster's,  drew 
blankets  and  such  other  clothing  as  we  required,  after 
which  we  were  assigned  to  our  quarters  and  had  our 
sleeping  places  designated. 

The  room  where  I  was  located  was  in  the  second 
story  of  the  barracks  which  formed  the  northern  side 
of  the  quadrangle,  and  contained  eight  double  bunks, 
each  holding  four  men,  that  is  to  say,  two  in  the  lower 
tier  and  two  in  the  upper. 

The  room  was  scrupulously  clean  and  neat,  and  was 
occupied  by  twenty  or  thirty  men,  some  playing  cards, 
some  lying  on  their  bunks,  and  one  or  two  vainly 
endeavoring  to  read  by  the  dismal  light  of  the  solitary 
candle  allowed  in  the  room.  Having  spread  my  blanket 
on  the  bunk  allotted  to  me,  stowed  away  my  effects 
and  lighted  my  pipe,  I  seated  myself  on  the  edge  of  my 
bunk,  and,  with  what  philosophy  I  could  muster,  set  to 


FIVE   YEARS   A   CAVALRYMAN.  1.'^ 

work  to  form  some  idea  of  the  clasa  of  men  I  was 
destined  to  pass  several  years  of  my  life  among. 

After  listening'  a  few  moments  to  their  conversation, 
and  from  what  I  coidd  gather  from  their  language  and 
general  appearance,  I  soon  satislied  myself  that  the 
majority  of  them  Avere  "bounty  jumpers,"  blackguards 
and  criminals  of  various  degrees,  or,  at  any  rate,  men 
who  had  sought  the  army  as  an  asylum  from  the  punish- 
ments that  the  law  would  have  justly  meted  out  to 
them  had  they  remained  in  civil  life.  Subsequent  ex- 
perience has  in  a  gTeat  measure  justified  this  view  as 
to  the  class  of  men  who  enter  the  army  in  a  time  of 
peace,  when  no  patriotic  call  induces  the  better  classes 
to  enlist.  Of  course,  there  are  some  honorable  excep- 
tions— the  veterans  of  ten  and  fifteen  years  service, 
who  were  in  the  army  previous  to  the  war,  and  who 
have  made  the  army  the  business  of  their  lives,  forming 
a  comparatively  decent  class ;  and  the  men  who  have 
seen  service  under  the  military  governments  of  the 
Old  World  form  another  class ;  but  these  differ  greatly 
from  the  average  of  American  young  men  who  seek  the 
ranks  of  the  regular  service. 

There  were,  however,  in  that  room  that  night,  as  I 
afterward  discovered,  a  few  joung  men  who  would 
have  done  ciedit  to  any  walk  of  life,  and  since  then  I 
have  known  a  number  of  eidisted  men  whose  hpiUds  I 
should  be  proud  to  gTasp  wherever  I  might  meet  thenu 
These  and  similar  reflections  served  (not  very  pleas- 
antly I  must  confess)  to  while  away  the  evening  until 
nine  o'clock,  when  the  "tattoo"  sounded.  We  fell  iu 
for  roll  call,  and  fifteen  minutes  afterward  "taps  "  gave 
the  signal  for  "  lights  out,"  and  I  soon  fell  asleej),  not- 
withstanding the  disagTceable  and  novel  nature  of  my 
surroundings,  and  so  ended  my  first  day's  experience 
as  a  "  regular  "  in  Uncle  Sam's  army.     The  first  call  of 


14  FIVE    YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

the  bugle  awoke  me  in  the  inorning  from  a  sound  and 
refi'eshing  sleep,  and  I  had  my  first  experience  of  dis- 
cipline by  having  the  Corporal  of  the  room  yell  at  me 
as  I  was  going  out  to  inhale  a  mouthful  of  fresh  air : 
"  Here,  you !  Come  back  and  fix  up  your  bunk  !"  I 
was  then  and  there  initiated  into  the  mysteries  of  fold- 
ing my  blankets  according  to  "  regulations,"  and  rolling 
my  overcoat  according  to  the  method  of  a  cavalryman, 
which  accomplished,  we  fell  in  for  "reveille." 

I  now  discovered  that  there  were  about  one  hundred 
recruits  in  the  mob  to  which  I  was  attached,  it  being 
designated  "C"  troop,  and  formed  one  of  the  three 
troops  or  companies  into  which  the  whole  number  of 
recruits  was  divided,  the  other  troops  being  "A"  and 
^'  B,"  respectively.  The  garrison  at  Carlisle  consisted 
of  one  full  company  of  cavalry,  known  as  the  "  perma- 
nent troop,"  filled  up  fi^om  time  to  time  with  men 
selected  from  among  the  recruits  at  the  garrison. 
Competent  members  of  this  troop  were  appointed 
"lance"  or  acting  non-commissioned  officers  and  as- 
signed to  the  recruit  troops  for  duty.  Eoll  call  over, 
"  stable  call "  sounded,  and  about  one-half  of  our  troop 
was  left-faced  and  marched  to  the  stables,  situated  in 
rear  of  the  barracks,  and  which  contained  about  one 
hundred  of  the  most  vicious  brutes  in  the  way  of  horses 
that  I  have  ever  encountered.  The  "bucking"  and 
"  i)itching  "  of  a  little  Texas  broncho,  as  afterward  ex- 
l)erienced,  is  only  a  mild  and  i)leasant  diversion  when 
compared  to  the  antics  of  one  of  those  sixteen-hand- 
high,  well-fed  cavalry  horses  that  had  become  case- 
hardened  by  contact  with  a  generation  of  recruits. 
After  watering  them,  we  led  them  back  to  the  "  jvicket 
roi)e "  and  fell  to  with  currycomb  and  brush,  which 
oi)eration  lasted  forty  minutes,  long  before  the  ter- 
mination of  which  I  would  have  asked   myself  (had 


FIVE  YEARS   A   CAVALRYMAN.  15 

that  famous  epigxam  been  then  uttered),  "  What  are 
we  here  for  'P 

With  my  usual  luck,  that  first  morning-  I  got  a  horse 
known  locally  as  the  "  Bounty  Jumper,"  a  brute  that 
combined  ^vithin  himself  every  vicious  and  unpleasant 
habit  any  horse  ever  possessed.  For  years  after  leav- 
ing Carlisle  every  recruit  claimed  some  experiences 
with  this  horse,  on  the  same  principle  that  every  stage- 
driver  claimed  to  have  driven  the  late  Mr.  Greeley 
over  the  mountains.  When  away  out  on  the  Texas 
frontier,  in  after  years,  we  learned  he  was  gathered  to 
his  fathers  and  was  at  rest. 

The  stable  Sergeant,  "Bully"  Welch,  as  he  was  called, 
a  veteran  of  twenty-five  years  service,  and  whose 
brilliant  row  of  enlistment  and  service  stripes  was  the 
envy  and  admiration,  as  well  as  the  terror,  of  all  us 
reciTiits,  was  an  odd  character,  and  his  extreme  i)ride 
in  his  position  and  the  dignity  attached  to  it,  brought 
down  his  truculent  wrath  on  the  offending  recruit  who 
addi'essed  him  without  proper  respect.  "Bully"  and 
the  "Bounty  Jumper"  were  long  traditions  with  the 
recruit  on  the  distant  frontier,  when  familiarity  had 
robbed  "Bully"  of  his  fancied  importance,  and  equally 
vicious  horses  had  deprived  the  "Bounty  Jumper"  of 
his  pre-eminence. 

The  horses  satisfactorily  groomed,  recall  sounded, 
we  marched  back  to  our  quarters,  washed  at  the  hydrant, 
and  then  into  breakfast,  which  always  consisted  of  a 
quart  of  strong  coffee,  about  six  ounces  of  good  light 
bread  and  a  slice  of  boOed  pork,  which  however 
meagre  it  would  be  thought  to  a  civillian,  yet  with 
appetite  sharpened  by  an  hour's  exercise,  is  apt  to  be 
regarded  as  very  palatable,  so  I  thought  then,  and 
many  a  time  afterward,  on  a  weary  march  through 
a  drenching  rain  or  under  the  burning  sun,  when  the 


16  FIVE    YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

^.o\e  articles  of  food  for  supper  have  been  one  hard- 
tack and  a  minute  i)iece  of  raw  x)orlv,  the  rations  of 
Carh'sle  have  been  looked  back  on  as  "flesh  pots" 
indeed. 

At   ceven   o'clock   we   were   marched  to  the  Post 
Sur<>eon  and  submitted  to  a  thorough  examination  by 
liim   and   the   commanding   officer.     At   nine   o'clock 
"  drill  call "  sounded,  and  we  were  put  through  the 
interesting-  exercise  of  the  "school  of  the  trooper  dis- 
mounted."    Dinner  at  noon,  drill  from  two  to  three, 
stables  at  four,  supper  at  five,  "retreat"  roll  call  at 
sundown,  the   evening   spent  in  the  same  manner  as 
])revJously  described.     So  passed  one  day  much  like 
another,  without  any  variation,  except  on   Saturday, 
when,  in  lieu  of  drill,  a  thorough  cleaning,  technically 
called  "policing,"  was  given  the  i)arade  grounds,  quar- 
ters and  stables.    If  "  cleanliness  is  next  to  godliness  " — 
cleanliness  in  everything:  cooking, bedding,  in  person, 
clothing— it  is  the  one  feature  of  army  life  that  can  lay 
claim  to  even  remotely  approaching  any  sort  or  kind 
of  "godliness."      The  monotony  of  barrack  life   was 
l)roken  by  one  case  of  well-defined  Asiatic  cholera  (then 
ei)ldemic  in  the  great  cities),  which  terminated  fatally, 
but   owing   to    the    complete   sanitary    rules,   rigidly 
enforced  at  all  military  posts,  and  the  absolute  per- 
sonal cleanliness  above  alluded  to,  and  the  isolating 
the  pat'ent  in  an  unusual  part  of  the  hospital,  but  the 
one  case  occurred. 

The  varietj^  of  character  among  the  men  was  a  curious 
and  interesting  study  to  me,  and  could  the  real  reasons 
which  had  brought  each  man  there  have  been  ascertain- 
ed, what  a  motley  p'cture  would  have  been  presented! 

In  a  country  like  ours,  where  no  large  standing  army  ' 
is  needed,  there  can  be  no   considerable  class,  as  in 
Germany  or  France,  that  look  forward  to  the  army  as 


FIVE    YEAR8    A    CAVALRV:\rAN.  17 

a  ])rofe3sioii  oi'  tnule,  and  few  doGirable  youii^"  iiieii 
enlist  in  time  of  peace  from  clioiee.  At  tlie  close  of 
the  war  come  uneasy  cpir'ts  who  had  learned  to  like  the 
lazy,  irresponsible,  recklecs  life  of  the  camj),  and  found 
the  restrainto  of  civil  life  insupportable,  sought  the 
regular  army,  but  the  vast  majority  of  those  who  jo'ned 
the  service,  at  the  time  I  write  of,  had  some  urf/enf  if 
not  f/oofl  reason  for  so  dohig.  ]S"ow  and  then  I  came 
across  a  young-  man,  wxll  brought  up  and  of  good  fam'ly, 
who  had  come  Into  the  army  from  a  love  of  adventure 
and  a  desire  to  see  frontier  l-fe,  such  as  the  army  can 
alone  afford,  and  who  conducted  himself  with  the  same 
propriety  as  if  under  the  best  restraints  and  influences. 
To  such  as  he  there  is  no  better  school  than  the  army, 
])erhap3  none  so  good.  Th's  class,  however,  was  a 
very  limited  one,  but  just  large  enough  to  afford  a 
grateful  contrast  with  the  larger  one  mentioned. 

After  being  at  Carlisle  a  few  weeks,  rumors  began 
to  pervade  the  cam])  that  very  soon  a  large  detachment 
of  us  would  be  ent  to  the  ''w'ld  west"  to  till  up  the 
various  regiments  stationed  on  our  w'dely  extended 
frontier.  Xo  country  village  can  equal  a  garrison  for 
rumors,  small  talk  and  baseless  stories  of  all  kinds. 
The  human  mind  runs  in  ruts,  anyhow,  and  isolate  a 
few  hundred  men  in  a  military  camp,  the  items  of  real 
interest  being  scarce,  the  imaginary,  or,  as  they  called 
them  at  Carlisle,  "  gTai)evine  "  stories  multiply'. 

However,  about  the  end  of  October,  tin  cups,  haver- 
sacks and  three  days  rations  were  issued;  unusual 
activity  prevailed  among  the  clerks  at  headquarters, 
and  we  ascertained  delinitely  that  a  detachment  of 
about  tive  hundred  recruits  was  to  leave  Carlisle  on 
the  morning  of  the  first  of  November  for  Baltimore, 
and  thence  by  steamer  to  Galveston,  for  assignment  to 
the  various  cavalry  regiments  serving  in  Texas.     The 


18  FIVE    YEARS    A    CAVALRYMAN. 

prospect  of  being:  in  motion  mid  among  sceneG  to  me 
entirely  new,  served  to  elate  my  spirits  and  to  enable 
me  to  look  forward  more  cheerfully  than  I  had  done, 
a3  the  monotony  and  inactive  life  at  the  garrison  had 
left  entirely  too  much  time  for  reflectlona  upon,  and 
unavailing-  regrets  for,  scenes  that  for  a  long  time  to 
come  would  be  "joys  departed." 


FIVE    YEAKS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  19 


CHAPTER  II. 


OFF  FOR  TEXAS — THROUGH  BALTIMORE — ON  BOARD 
THE  CRESCENT — A  TOBACCO  FAMINE — THE  SEA, 
THE  SEA — GALVESTON  BAY — PELICAN  ISLAND— 
THE  GIANT  MOSQUITO — THE  ARMY  CLERK — ^ON  TO 
INDIANOLA. 

Bright  and  early  on  the  morning  of  October  31st 
we  were  awakened  by  the  bugles,  had  hot  coffee  served 
out -to  us,  and  "fell  in"  on  the  parade  ground  for  a 
final  roll  call  and  verification  of  the  detachment  before 
leaving.  Tliere  were  several  names  that  felled  to 
respond  when  called,  the  owners  having  "skipped  out" 
on  the  eve  of  de])arture,  reversing  Hamlet's  opinion 
relative  to  "  flying  from  ills  we  know,  to  those  we  know 
not  of." 

Four  hundred  and  seventy-one  recru'tsand  seventeen 
men  of  the  ])ermanent  corps,  who  were  sent  out  to  join 
their  respective  regiments,  answered  to  their  names, 
and  were  divided  into  three  troops  for  the  greater 
convenience  of  messing,  enforcing  discipline,  and  quar- 
tering on  the  tr']).  I  was  appointed  a  sergeant  of  one 
of  the  troops,  and  j^oon  learned  that  a  little  authority 
involved  a  heap  of  trouble. 

Farewells  were  exchanged  bj^  some  few  who  had 
fi\iends  or  acquaintances  present,  and,  preceded  by  the 
band  of  the  garrison,  we  marched  to  the  depot  to  the 


20  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

strains  of  "The  Girl  I  Left  Behind  Me."  Few  tears 
are  shed  by  the  recruit  as  he  leaves  Carlisle  behind 
him,  for  the  recollections  of  his  first  experiences  of 
regular  army  life  are  generally  the  reverse  of  agreeable. 
It  is  here  that  the  stern  command,  "  Stand  to,  attention, 
sir!'^  calls  the  recruit  to  assume  a  rigid  position,  the 
"  position  of  a  soldier,"  instead  of  a  natural  one  into 
Avhich  the  embryo  warrior  is  apt  to  relapse,  forgetful 
of  his  new  duties ;  it  is  here,  too,  that  many  a  man  for 
the  first  time  realizes  what  "  fantastic  tricks  "  can  be 
played  by  one  "  clothed  in  a  little  brief  authority ; " 
begins  to  have  an  inkling  of  the  certain  amount  of 
brutality'  inherent  in  all  vulgar  men  whom  circum- 
stances have  temporarily  placed  in  authority  over  the'r 
fellows ;  in  short,  begins  to  appreciate  the  fact  that  he 
is  only  a  common  soldier — "food  for  powder" — and 
that  as  such  he  has  no  "rights  that  anybody  is  bound 
to  respect." 

Early  in  the  afternoon  we  reached  Baltimore,  over 
the  Xoiihern  Central  Railway,  and  tramped  along- 
through  its  streets  for  miles  to  the  wharf,  where  lay 
the  transport  that  was  to  carry  us  to  Texas.  Consid- 
erable delay  and  confusion  necessarily  occurred  in 
getting  so  large  a  number  of  men  embarked,  and  being 
in  charge  of  the  rear  guard,  I  found  when  I  finally  got 
on  the  vessel  that  every  available  space  "below"  was 
occupied.  The  atmosphere  down  there,  however,  being 
stifiing,  my  "  bunkie "  and  I  succeeded  in  getting  per- 
mission to  remain  on  deck,  and  it  being  now  dark  and 
quite  cold  we  found  a  sheltered  corner,  and  with  the 
aid  of  our  overcoats  and  blankets  proceeded  to  make 
ourselves  comfortable.  This  word  comfort  able  ^  by  the 
way,  is  one  of  the  most  elastic  and  comprehensive  in 
the  language,  and,  being  entk'ely  a  comi)arative  word^. 
may  generally,  when  found  in  these  pages,  be  understood 


FIVE   YEARS   A    (UVALHYMAN.  21 

in  a  Pickwickian  sense.  Our  ve.S8el  waw  a  KidewJieel 
steamer  called  the  Crescent,  belouj^in^-,  I  tliink,  to  tlie 
Morgan  line,  and  liad  been  originally  engaged  in  run- 
ning cotton  from  Matagorda  Hay  to  Havana  duiiiig  the 
war.  It  was  entirely  lilled  by  our  detacliment,  the  ii  en 
being  ])acked  something  like  smoked  herring  or  clothes- 
pins, and  the  only  arrangement  for  cooking  waa  the 
small  galley  on  deck,  which  might  have  been  ample  for 
twenty  or  thirty  passengers,  but  was  entirely  inadeciuate 
for  the  wants  of  five  hundred  men. 

The  first  night  we  dropi)ed  down  the  Chesapeake  and 
anchored  oi)posite  Fort  McHenry,  Avhere  in  the  early 
dawn  of  the  next  morning  we  could  see  that  our  '' fiag 
was  still  there,''  but  patriotic  sentiments  in  my  mind 
were  at  a  discount  just  then,  and  I  didn't  care  whether 
it  still  waved  or  otherwise.  Our  whole  comrinind  (as 
stated)  being  divided  into  three  troops,  we  got  matters 
somewhat  in  order  the  first  day  out;  one  troop  was 
cooked  for  and  fed  at  a  time,  the  one  whicdi  had  the 
first  chance  at  the  galley  on  one  day,  taking  the  last 
one  on  the  next  day,  and  so  on.  Two  meals  a  day  were 
cooked,  coffee  and  hard-tack  for  breakfast,  sou|)  or 
boiled  potatoes  and  pork  for  dinner.  Tin's  contained 
to  be  the  bill  of  fare  during  the  voyage,  exc^ept  during 
some  very  rough  weather  experienced  in  cro;;3ing  the 
Mexican  Gulf,  when  eating,  or  at  least  cooking,  was 
dispensed  with.  It  being  Impossible  to  use  the  galley. 

We  were  favored  with  beautiful  weather  for  the  first 
few  days  out ;  Indeed,  until  after  we  passed  the  Dry 
Tortugas,  when  It  became  very  rough  and  our  vessel 
rolled  fearfully,  many  of  the  men  becomUig  seas'ck.  I 
was  not  affected  at  all,  and  had  a  prodigious  ap|)etite 
during  the  entire  trip,  which,  however,  was  rather  an 
evil.  In  view  of  the  very  limited  amount  and  kind  of 
food  furnished. 


22  FIVK    YEARS    A    CAVALRYMAN. 

Within  a  day  or  two  after  leaving  Baltimore  most  of 
the  men  began  to  run  short  of  tobacco,  and  I  never 
Avould  have  believed  or  could  have  imagined  the 
amount  of  misery  a  man  Avill  undergo  when  deprived 
of  his  favorite  weed.  Those  who  had  money  bought  a 
sui)ply  from  the  crew  at  exorbitant  prices ;  those  who 
had  no  money  (the  great  majority)  exchanged  their  sur- 
l)lus  clothing  for  it,  and  those  who  had  neither  money 
nor  surplus  clothing  to  use  as  a  medium  of  exchange, 
stole  their  comrades'  clothing  and  ^'swapped-'  it  off. 
The  Captain  of  the  vessel  and  the  commanding  officer 
of  our  detachment  did  all  in  their  power  to  prevent  and 
punish  such  traffic,  with  but  limited  success,  however. 
Woe  to  the  luckless  wight  who  for  one  moment  allowed 
his  sight  to  Avander  from  his  knapsack ;  presto !  his 
overcoat  or  his  blanket,  or,  mayhap,  his  solitary  shirt, 
was  gone  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  and  some  more 
grasping  and  less  scrupulous  rascal  would  steal  knap- 
sack and  all. 

My  bunkmate  and  I  had  become  quite  intimate  by 
this  time.  I  suppose  we  had  found  something  con- 
genial in  each  other  by  a  kind  of  "  natural  selection," 
and  the  wonderful  shades  of  character  and  disposition 
seen  in  the  motley  mob  with  whom  we  were  thrown 
was  an  unending  source  of  amusement  to  us.  This 
young  man  is  to-day  a  prosperous  and  respected  citizen 
of  a  Southern  city,  he  having  through  political  influence 
secured  his  discharge  long  before  his  term  of  service 
had  exjrired. 

Among  the  recruits  was  a  young,  delicate-looking 
boy,  who,  wliile  at  Carlisle,  had  been  employed  in  the 
Adjutant's  office,  and  who,  upon  our  leaving  there,  had 
been  assigned  to  my  troop,  and  a  reque;^t  made  me  by 
the  Post  Cha]>lain  to  look  after  him.  He  was  the  sou 
of  a  professor  in  Trinity  College,  Dublin,  and  had  been 


FIVE   YEARS    A    CAVALRYMAN.  23 

sent  to  this  country  about  a  year  before  bj^  his  father, 
well  provided  with  money  and  with  letters  of  introduc- 
tion to  prominent  men  in  Pliiladelphia  and  New  York, 
it  being-  the  intention  that  lie  should  spend  a  few 
months  in  travel,  and  then  enter  a  law  office  and  read 
for  a  time.  Arriving'  at  New  York,  he  fell  among 
thieves,  spent  aJl  his  money,  pawned  his  watch  and 
other  valuables,  and  then,  feeling  ashamed  to  hunt  up 
his  father's  correspondents,  enlisted  for  the  cavalry,  and 
here  he  was.  This  youth  nearly  "  broke  me  up  "  on  the 
trip  with  his  blunders,  his  freshness,  his  carelessness, 
until  he  was  providentially  taken  sick  and  placed  in  the 
Bick-bay,  and  I  saw  him  no  more  until  we  landed  at 
Galveston. 

The  time  wore  along  on  shipboard,  one  day  the 
counterpart  of  another,  and  watching  the  porpoises  and 
flying-fish  during  the  day,  and  at  night  witnessing  the 
wonderful  phosphorescent  display  as  we  steamed  south- 
ward into  warmer  latitudes,  soon  became  tedious  and 
monotonous  in  its  sameness.  I  endeavored  to  become 
enthusiastic  in  my  own  mind,  and  to  call  up  and  realize 
some  of  the  many  pretty  things  so  often  said  and  sung  by 
those  who  "  go  down  to  the  sea  in  ships."  I  thought  of 
*'the  sea,  the  sea,  the  deep  blue  sea,"  and  of  the  "  waste 
of  waters,"  and  about  its  being 

"A  thing  of  life,  that  bounds  beneath  me, 
Asa  hoTse  that  knows  its  rider, ' ' 

and  all  the  rest  of  it,  but  I  more  nearly  realized  and 
also  appreciated  Doctor  Johnson's  famous  definition  of 
a  ship :  "A  prison,  with  the  additional  danger  of  being- 
drowned." 

For  two  days  we  rolled  and  pitched  (our  transport 
was  a  perfect  tub)  among  the  inky  waters  of  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico,  and  on  the  evening  of  the  ninth  day  out 
from  Baltimore,  just  after  dark,  sighted  the  lights  at 


24  FIVE    YEARS    A    CAVALRYMAN. 

tlie  eiitrance  of  Galveston  Bay.  Our  top-lieavy  old 
ho'M  having  ceased  to  roll,  the  men,  who  dur'ng  the 
storm  had  been  kept  below  with  the  hatches  battened 
down,  were  allowed  to  come  on  deck  in  the  evening, 
and  in  their  exuberance  of  sp'rit,  at  the  projpect  of 
setting  foot  on  terra  firma  on  the  morrow,  many  a  song 
and  choru3  was  shouted  by  the  different  groups,  some 
^-ery  fine  voices  being  among  them.  And  then  I  noticed 
always  during  my  army  I'fe  that  if  a,  fellow  could  siig 
at  all,  the  bigger  reprobate  he  was,  the  more  add'cted 
he  would  be  to  s'ngingthe  most  ultra  sent'mental  songs. 
And  so  til's  u'ght  a  dozen  different  groups  were  s'nghig 
every  shade  of  song,  from  the  "  Evening  Song  to  the 
Virgin*'  to  "Champagne  Charley;"  and  under  the 
glorious  sky  of  th^s  latitude,  with  the  ship  swinging 
slowly  at  her  anchor,  and  the  prospect  of  stepping  on 
a  new  scene  to-morrow,  every  heart  felt  lighter,  if  not 
better,  for  the  hour. 

The  next  morning  we  came  m  sight  of  the  city  of 
Galveston,  and  about  two  in  the  afternoon  a  pilot 
boarded  us,  and  in  an  hour  or  two,  in  a  drenching  rain, 
we  disembarked  on  the  wliarf,  and  were  at  last  on  the 
soil  of  Texas. 

After  standing  huddled  under  ?ai  old  shed  on  the 
wharf  for  an  hour  or  more,  the  command  was  placed 
on  a  tugboat  and  carried  to  Pelican  Island,  a  few  miles 
np  tiie  bay  from  the  city,  two  trips  of  the  boat  being 
necessi^ry  to  convey  us  all. 

My  impression  of  Pelican  Island,  as  seen  in  the  wan- 
ing light  of  a  cold,  wet  November  evening,  was  that  it 
was  the  worst  spot  I  had  seen  in  the  course  of  my 
earthly  pilgrimage  up  to  date,  and  after  all  these  j^ears 
I  can  recall  nothing  so  dreary.  Imagine  a  low  sand 
bank  of  ])robably  a  mile  in  circumference,  approached 
by  •}  long  (li'a])i dated  pier,  occupied  on  two  sides  by 


FIVE    YKARS    A    (1AVALKYMAN.  25 

earthworks  in  a  ruinous  state,  the  only  vestige  of  a 
habitation  beinj^-  a  rotten  and  blackened  old  frame - 
buildin<>-  calculated  to  (juarter  about  three  hundred 
men,  iloorless,  roofless,  and  but  little  of  wall::;  remain- 
ing built  on  wooden  piles  (as  the  water  ran  u])  under 
the  building-  at  high  tide),  and  a  tumble-down  frame 
house  of  four  rooms  that  had  evidently  been  used  as 
officers'  quarters  when  the  island  was  garrisoned  during 

the  late  war. 

There  was  not  a  particle  of  vegetation  on  the  island, 
and  seen  in  the  light  of  this  gloomy  evening,  wet,  cold 
and  hungry,  the  wind  howling  through  and  around  the 
old  shed  we  were  quartered  in,  a  more  depressing 
scene  could  scarcely  be  imagined. 

Having  collected  driftwood  and  started  flres,  we 
managed  to  cook  some  supper,  and  afterward  the  ofticer 
commanding  permitted  the  non-commissioned  ofticers 
to  occupy  the  old  ofticers'  house  with  him.  The  win- 
dows and  doors  were  gone,  but  we  tore  off  weather- 
boards and  closed  up  the  openings,  and  having  built  a 
roaring  fire  in  the  chimney-place  and  dried  our  clothes, 
we  passed  a  comparatively  comfortable  night,  although 
the  tide  was  swirlhig  and  washing  against  the  loose 
floor  on  which  we  slept.  Late  as  it  was  in  the  season, 
mosquitos  of  a  huge  size  abounded,  and  the  funny  man 
of  our  party  assured  us  that  he  saw  twelve  of  them 
going  through  the  heavy  artillery  drill  with  one  of  the 
ten-inch  guns  that  remained  in  the  earthworks. 

The  morning's  view  of  the  island  confirmed  the  first 
impression  as  to  its  utter  dreariness,  but  a  sound  sleep 
and  good  digestion,  notwithstanding  the  tide  and  wind 
and  mosquitos,  and  a  cup  of  hot  coffee  and  plenty  of 
pork  and  hard-tack  for  breakfast,  modified  my  views 
somewhat,  and  I  sallied  out  and  examined  the  earth- 
works  constructed   by   the    Confederates    during  the 


^6  FIVE   YEARS   A   CAVALRYMAN. 

war.  A  considerable  quantity  of  lieavy  ordnance  and 
am  munition  remained,  having  been  abandoned,  the 
island  having  been  captured  hy  and  was  in  the  hands 
of  the  Federals  when  hostilities  ceased. 

In  the  course  of  the  day  a  dispatch  boat,  with  the 
Adjutant  General  of  the  District  of  Texas  on  board, 
came  out  from  Galveston,  and  we  fell  in  line  for  the 
purpose  of  being  counted  off  and  assigned  to  the  two 
cavalry  regiments  then  in  Texas,  and  for  which  we  were 
destined.  Much  to  our  mutual  regret,  my  friend  and  I 
were  allotted  to  different  regiments,  although  the  com- 
mandant had  promised  us  that  we  should  go  together. 
After  the  allotment  was  made  four  of  us  were  detailed 
to  ])roceed  to  the  office  at  district  headquarters  for  the 
purpose  of  aiding  in  making  out  descriptive  lists, 
clothing  rolls,  etc.,  to  accompany  the  diff'erent  detach- 
ments to  their  destinations.  We  accordingly  proceeded 
to  Galveston  on  the  dispatch  bo£it,  and,  after  four  days 
steady  writing,  completed  the  task. 

I  was  then  informed  that  I  was  not  to  accompany  my 
comrades  to  my  regiment,  but  that  my  friend  and  I  had 
been  detailed  to  go  to  New  Orleans  as  clerks  at  head- 
quarters of  the  Department  of  the  Gulf.  This  arrange- 
ment suited  by  friend,  but  did  not  meet  my  views,  as  I 
wished,  now  that  I  a\  as  in  the  service,  to  see  what  I 
could  of  the  lights  and  shadows  of  army  life  on  the 
frontier,  and  not  to  spend  the  time  performing  clerical 
duties  in  a  headquarters  office.  The  other  men  heard 
my  determination  with  amazement,  as  a  detail  to  liead- 
(juarters  is  looked  upon  as  the  "  softest"  thing, find  the 
most  desirable,  in  the  service.  The  clerks  so  detailed 
have  no  military  duty  to  i)erform,  wear  no  uniform,  get 
commutation  of  various  kinds,  which  made  the  pay 
approximate  one  thousand  dollars  i)er  annum — in  other 
words,  do  have  a  soft  thing.     But  1  made  my  choice, 


FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  27 

and  never  liad  reason  to  regret  it,  although  many  a 
time  I,  momentarily,  thought  1  liad  made  a  fool  of  my- 
self. So,  bidding  farewell  to  the  boys  who  went  to  the 
other  regiment,  we  bade  adieu  to  Pelican  Island,  and, 
embarking  on  the  steamer  Harlan,  our  detachment  of 
two  hundi'ed  and  fifty-one  men  sailed  for  Jndianola,  on 
Matagorda  Bay,  to  proceed  thence  by  land  to  Austin 
via  San  Antonio,  Austin  being  at  that  time  the  head- 
quarters of  my  regiment. 


1?S  FIVE    YEARS    A    CAVALRYMAN. 


CHAPTER  III. 


MATAGORDA  BAY'^ — LAVAOOA — THE  MODEL  RAILWAY' — • 
VICTORIA — SOME  VETERANS — THE  OX-OART — THE 
RANCHERO — THE  VOUCHER — GOLIAD. 

The  day  after  leaving'  Galveston  we  arrived  at 
Indianola,  on  Matagorda  Bay,  and  this  being-  a  dei)ot  of 
supplies,  we  drew  our  camp  e(inipage  and  rations  for 
the  inaT(*h  to  San  Antonio.  Indianola  seemed  a  forlorn 
sort  of  ])lace,  lying  on  a  bhiff  at  but  a  slight  elevation 
above  the  water  level,  and  the  soil  consisted  of  "black 
nuid,"  which,  after  the  recent  rain,  was  much  of  the 
nature  of  coal  tar.  Since  then  the  place  has  been 
obliterated  by  tidal  waves,  which  seem  to  i)eriodically 
furnish  about  all  the  really  '' deej)  water"  there  is  on 
the  Texas  coast. 

I  was  made  "commissary"  of  our  command,  and  for 
the  next  two  months  was  in  a  state  of  warfare  with  the 
whole  mob ;  my  general  recollection  seems  to  be,  hoAV- 
ever,  that  I  held  my  own  with  them.  AVe  then  loaded 
our  stores  and  command  on  a  small  steame-r  and  sailed 
away  across  the  bay  to  Port  Lavacca,  on  the  western 
shore  of  the  same,  a  little  ])lace,  and  then  the  terminus 
of  the  "  San  Antonio  and  Mexican  Ciulf  Railway,"  which 
was  (completed  to  Victoria,  about  thirty  miles  west- 
ward, and  in  the  direction  of  San  Antonio.  We  camped 
at    Lavacca  one  night,  and  about   noon  the  next  day 


FIVE    YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  29 

embarked  on  the  ears  for  Victoria,  aeeo7iipliRhiiif>-  the 
distance  of  some  thirty  miles  by  nightfall,  wiiicJi  we 
learned  was  an  unusual  rate  of  speed,  as  the  natives, 
when  in  a  hurry  to  visit  Lavacca,  either  rode  horseback 
or  walked.  All  hands  got  out  and  pu;;hed  at  times; 
the  wheezy  old  locomotive  was  either  unused  to  so 
heavy  a  load,  or  else  felt  patriotically  averse  to  intro- 
ducing "Yankee  soldiers"  to  Texas  soil.  This  was  at 
that  day,  I  think,  one  of  the  only  three  railroads  in  the 
State — surely  since  then  the  "  wilderness  has  blossomed 
like  the  rose." 

Victoria  was  found  to  be  a  beautiful  village,  situated 
on  the  left  bank  of  the  Guadaloupe  river,  and  like  all 
the  towns  in  this,  the  oldest  settled,  portion  of  Texas, 
bore  many  traces  of  its  early  Spanish  settlement.  The 
universal  custom  of  a  central  plaza  or  square  in  the 
middle  of  the  village  was  new  to  me  then,  but  since  I 
have  become  so  used  to  seeing  this  plan  of  a  town,  the 
old-fashioned  long  streets  of  our  Northern  towns,  with- 
out any  open  space,  would  seem  to  lack  an  essential 
feature.  Many  Mexicans  lived  in  this  portion  of  the 
State,  and  nearly  all  the  business  houses  displayed 
signs  both  in  the  Spanish  and  English  languages. 

The  young  ofticer  to  whom  had  been  assigned  the 
duty  of  conducting  us  to  regimental  headquarters  was 
appointed  from  civil  life,  and  had  had  little  or  no  ex- 
perience during  the  war ;  a  handsome  fellow,  a  gentle- 
man, and  of  fine  disposition,  but  his  good  nature  was 
sadly  tried  before  he  got  through  to  Austin.  The  men 
in  a  few  days  became  acquainted  in  town,  and  soon 
commenced  selling  their  clothing  for  whiskey,  and  com- 
mitted so  many  depredations  that  the  Lieutenant  had 
to  apply  to  the  commanding  officer  of  the  garrison  tem- 
porarily stationed  there  for  an  armed  guard  to  be 
placed  over  the  camp. 


30  FIVE   YEARS    A    CAVALRYMAN. 

The  system,  or  want  of  system,  prevaiiiug-  at  tliiG  time 
in  regard  to  forwarding  recruits  to  the  various  regi- 
ments is  worthy  of  a  passing  notice.  An  officer, 
generally  a  young  man,  or  one  newly  joined,  was  sent 
out  fi-om  the  depot  in  charge  of  a  large  bodj^  of  recruits, 
and,  after  landing  at  some  8ea])ort,  they  were  marched 
several  hundred  miles  into  the  interior,  w^ithout  a  uuli- 
tary  escort  or  armed  guard,  and  had  no  means  of 
enforcing  discipline,  preventing  desertion,  or  punishing 
crime.  Under  such  circumstances  a  large  body  of 
soldiers  becomes  an  uncontrollable  mob,  and  no  matter 
what  was  the  qualifications  of  the  officer,  he  was 
powerless  to  prevent  outrage  and  depredation. 

I  may  note  here,  that,  at  the  time  I  am  writing  of,  the 
"Reconstruction"  period  was  at  hand;  chaos  was  pre- 
vailing after  the  war,  and  somewhere  about  twenty 
regiments  of  regular  soldiers  were  cami)ing  at  over  one 
hundi^ed  and  seventy-live  military-  stations  in  this  great 
State,  scattered  fi^om  the  Red  river  to  the  Rio  Grande. 

We  lay  at  Victoria  some  days,  during  which  time  the 
three  other  non-commissioned  officers  and  mjself 
formed  a  mess,  and  made  our  arrangements  for  the  long 
march  to  Austin.  Two  of  them  have  long  since  "joined 
the  majority,"  the  other  one  I  have  lost  sight  of.  These 
three  men  were  characters,  of  a  class,  too.  that  is  prac- 
tically now  extinct.  All  of  them  were  old  soldiers,  had 
seen  service  in  the  dragoons,  mounted  rifles,  and  in- 
fantry of  the  old  army  (before  the  war),  and  per  conse- 
quence looked  with  contemi)t  on  the  fellow  whose 
experience  only  dated  from  the  volunteer  service 
during  the  war.  And,  by  the  way,  the  profound  con- 
tem])t  felt  by  the  regular  soldier  for  everything  and 
everybody  connected  with  or  pertaining  to  the  volun- 
teer soldiery  would  be  very  funny  if  it  wasn't  about 
correct.     The  war,  just  then  closed,  had  demonstrated 


FIVE    YEARS    A    CAVALRYMAN.  31 

that  iieitlicr  the  North  nor  South  liad  ])roduced  a  sol- 
dier above  the  rank  of  Captain  that  was  worth  a  cent, 
aside  from  the  reiiulaily  edueated  soldier.  Two  of  my 
l)arty,  one,  Jim  l)eP\)rre8t,  an  Irishman,  the  other, 
Ahrberg-,  a  German,  fill  a  lar<>e  space  in  my  recollec- 
tions of  these  days.  DeForrest  had  served  ten  years 
in  the  old  Fourth  Infantry  under  Captain  R.  B.  Marcy ; 
was  intelligent,  witty,  and  with  a  fund  of  anecdote,  but 
with  all  the  old  soldier's  fondness  for  whiskey,  which 
finally  caused  him  to  succumb  to  its  influence,  and  he 
sleei)S  by  the  Brazos  river  at  Waco,  his  campaigns 
ended.  Ahrberg,  big  and  fat  as  Falstaff,  looms  up  in 
these  initial  days  of  my  "  soldiering,"  and  often  I  smile 
as  some  of  his  peculiarities  come  up  in  my  mind.  He 
weighed  two  hundred  and  fifty  pounds,  had  served  in 
the  German  army,  and  then  for  years  in  the  Second 
Dragoons  under  the  famous  Harney ;  went  with  Walker, 
the  "grey-eyed  man  of  destiny,"  to  Nicaragua,  as  a 
"filibuster;"  served  in  Kansas  as  Adjutant  of  a  regi- 
ment during  the  rebellion,  went  back  to  Europe,  and 
was  at  Sadowa  in  1866,  then  again  enlisting  in  ouraimy. 
Well  educated,  intelligent,  skilled  in  all  the  life  of  the 
camp,  and  observant,  he  was  a  walking  encyclopii3dia, 
and  then,  having  campaigned  all  over  the  portion  of 
Texas  we  were  now  in,  he  was  an  authority,  to  the 
"  manor  born,"  as  it  were.  Unkindly,  we  slyly  kept  a 
record  of  his  varied  service  and  achievements,  and 
finding  it  aggregated  something  api)roaching  one  hun- 
dred and  forty  years,  we  mentioned  it  to  him,  and  a 
coolness  ensued,  which  it  cost,  eventually,  several 
"  canteens  full  "  to  remove. 

DeForrest  and  Ahrberg  could  never  hit;  one  old 
soldier  never  regards  another  one  as  a  hero,  and  so 
both  these  veterans  entertained  and  i)rivately  expressed 
the  most  profound  contempt  for  the  other  one.     Ihe 


32  FIVE    YEARS    A    CAVALRYMAN. 

former  was  one  of  Colonel  Marey's  party  that  made  the 
unparalleled  march  across  the  mountains  in  1857,  so 
gTaphically  described  in  "Thirty  Years  of  Frontier 
Life." 

Transportation  was  at  length  secured,  and  on  the 
29th  of  November  we  pulled  out  for  8an  Antonio. 
The  ox-carts  were  rude  and  clumsy  looking-  affairs  to 
me,  covered  with  rawhides,  and  with  heavy  wheels, 
but  they  exhibited  a  carrying  cai)acity  which  was  won- 
derful. The  yokes  were  lashed  in  front  of  the  horn'^^,. 
so  the  load  was  pushed,  not  i)ulled.  The  drivers  were 
all  Mexicans,  and  their  strange  language,  swarthy  com- 
plexions, broad  sombreros  and  striped  blankets,  pre- 
sented a  novel  and  picturesque  appearance ;  and  as 
they  flourished  the'r  long  whii)3,  wielded  with  both 
hands,  and  urged  the  patient  oxen  with  their  strange 
cries,  the  creaking  of  the  huge  carts,  and  the  scenery, 
which  began  to  remind  us  that  we  were  far  from  our 
Northern  homes,  all  served  to  clothe  each  mile  with 
new  interest,  and  leave  less  time  for  vainly  regretting 
the  past. 

Part  of  my  duty  each  morning  was  to  take  the 
butchers  detailed,  start  in  advance  of  the  command, 
and  kill  one  or  two  beeves  for  the  next  day's  supply. 
By  the  time  the  column  came  along  the  beef  would  be 
cut  up  and  dressed  and  loaded  on  the  carts.  Cattle 
abounded  in  untold  thousands,  and  as  long  as  the 
ranchero  did  not  catch  us  we  could  slaughter  them 
with  impunity.  If  we  were  "  caught  up  with ''  by  the 
owners  we  referred  them  to  the  Lieutenant,  who  sat- 
isfied them  with  a  voucher  on  the  authorities  at  San 
Antonio;  but  in  several  instances  Ahrberg  (of  happy 
memory)  was  with  the  party,  personated  the  officer  in 
command,  and  gave  a  '^  voucher  "  signed  with  a  name 
unknown  to  the  Army  Kegister,  so  it  is  fair  to  presume 


FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  33 

that  the  exi)ense8  of  the  army  for  fresh  beef  were  not 
materially  increased  by  the  meat  consumed  on  that 
trij).  If  Job  (the  ])atient)  could  have  seen  the  count- 
less herds  of  cattle  that  in  that  day  covered  the  broad 
prairies  along  the  Gulf  coast,  from  Matagorda  to  San 
Antonio,  he  would  have  admitted  himself  to  be  only  a 
"  poor  white,"  in  comparison. 

Most  of  the  country  passed  through  was  very  beau- 
tiful and  extremely  fertile,  but  as  it  was  late  in  the  fall 
the  prairies  looked  brown  and  sere.  The  weather, 
though,  was  a  never-failing  delight  to  me — so  balmy, 
and  very  much  like  the  St-ptember  weather  of  the 
Middle  States.  Cypress  timber  abounded  in  the  low 
lands,  and  often  was  heavily  garlanded  or  draped  witli 
S})ani8h  moss,  the  effect  of  which,  gracefully  pendant 
from  the  funereal  cypress,  and  festooned  so  thickly  in 
places  as  to  exclude  the  sunlight  at  midday,  produced 
a  weird  and  solemn,  "  dim,  religious  light."  This  moss 
has  of  late  years  become  a  valuable  article  of  com- 
merce, and  is  used  for  tilling  cushions,  mattresses,  horse 
collars  and  similar  purposes. 

We  had  exi)ected  to  pass  through  the  historic  village 
of  Goliad,  where  the  gallant  Fannin  and  his  command 
were  massacred  during  the  Texas  Ee volution,  but  it 
would  have  made  the  distance  somewhat  greater,  and 
we  left  it  out  of  our  route,  and  bore  further  to  the  right 
on  our  march  to  San  Antonio. 

2* 


34  FIVE    YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 


CHAPTER  lY. 


THE  GREASER  —  THE  CACTUS  —  THE  PRAIRIE  —  SAN 
ANTO^IO — THE  ALAMO — THE  NORTHER — CLIMATE — ■ 
SCENERY — ON  THE  ROAD — AUSTIN  AT  LAST. 

The  Mexican  ox-drivers  were  a  curiosity  to  me,  and, 
wliile  I  could  not  understand  their  language,  yet  I 
could  appreciate  the  earnestneBS  with  which  they  swore 
in  the  most  elaborate  and  complicated  manner  at  their 
teams.  The  Mexican  dialect  bears  about  the  same 
relation  to  Spanish  that  the  Canadian  patois  does  to 
real  French,  or  Pennsylvania  Dutch  does  to  German. 
Their  cooking,  too,  and  their  unapproachably  dirty 
habits  were  all  novel  and  strange,  and  yet  as  a  race — - 
although  like  all  mixed  races  more  or  less  degraded — 
they  are  proud  of  their  traditions  and  of  their  country, 
and  loyal  enough  to  it  to  give  up  their  lives  for  the 
fellow  who  may  be  temporarily  at  the  helm  of  the 
government. 

The  whole  face  of  the  country  was  covered  with 
mesquite,  and  cactus  of  a  thousand  different  shapes 
were  seen,  some  of  a  huge  growth.  I  had  never  seen 
cactus  before,  outside  of  a  conservatory,  and  then  only 
of  a  smaller  size.  The  fruit  borne  by  it,  knoAvn  as  the 
l)rickly  pear,  is  sometimes  used  as  food,  and  in  small 
quantities  is  wholesome  and  palatable.  The  leaves, 
when  submitted  to  the  action  of  lire  in  order  to  burn 


FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  35 

off  the  sharp  stickers,  are  used  as  food  for  cattle,  and 
in  very  drouthy  seasons,  when  grass  is  short,  are  of  great 
vahie.  I  had  imagined  this  section  of  Texas  to  be  a 
broad  expanse  of  prairie,  but  such  was  not  the  case, 
and  nowhere  in  Texas  have  I  seen  any  "  prairie  "  that 
is  worthy  of  the  name — that  is  to  say,  nothing  like  those 
of  Illinois  or  Iowa.  The  prairies  of  Texas  are  all  more 
or  less  dotted  with  groves  of  timber,  which  add  to  the 
beauty  of  the  landscape,  and  afford  a  grateful  shade  to 
the  traveler. 

On  December  Ist  I  had  a  refreshing  bath  in  the  Sau 
Antonio  river,  and  the  next  day  came  in  sight  of  the 
city,  lying  in  a  shallow  basin,  surrounded  by  a  low  range 
of  hills,  far  up  on  the  side  of  which  a  ruin  was  pointed 
out  as  the  remains  of  one  of  the  old  Jesuit  missions, 
established  by  those  pioneers  of  Christianity  fifty  years 
before  the  Pilgrims  set  foot  on  Plymouth  Eock. 

Entering  the  city  of  San  Antonio,  we  felt  at  once 
that  we  were  in  a  strange  country,  or  at  least  among  a 
strange  people.  The  town  is  one  of  the  oldest  in  the 
Union,  contemporary  with  San  Augustine  and  Santa 
Fe,  and  its  old  cathedral  church  of  San  Philip  de  Bexar 
dates  away  back,  having  been  built  by  the  generation 
immediately  succeeding  the  men  who  were  fellow 
adventurers  with  Cortez.  The  streets  seemed  narrow 
but  clean,  and  the  more  modern  i)ortion  filled  with 
handsome  business  houses  and  lighted  with  gas.  The 
town  is  well  watered,  and  many  of  the  streets  had 
little  streams  or  ditches  on  each  side  filled  with  clear 
running  water,  fed  by,  or  tributary  to,  the  San  Antonio 
and  San  Pedro  rivers,  both  of  which  meander  through 
it,  and  are  crossed  by  several  bridges. 

There  are  three  plazas  or  public  squares,  the  Main 
plaza,  the  Military  plaza  and  the  Alamo  plaza,  on  the 
latter    of    which    stood    the   ruins    of  what    mav  be 


36  FIVE   YEARS   A   CAVALRYMAN. 

considered,  or  should  be,  the  Mecca  of  Texas,  the  his- 
toric building  known  as  the  Alamo.  Here  Crockett, 
Bonham,  Travis,  Bowie  and  some  three  hundred  other 
heroes  fought  the  legions  of  Santa  Anna  for  days,  finally 
retreating  and  lighting  from  room  to  room ;  at  last, 
after  their  ammunition  was  exhausted,  in  a  hand-to-hand 
contest,  with  their  rifles  clubbed,  the  last  one  fell,  but 
Texas  was  free.     Well  might  it  be  said  of  such  a  place : 

'  'Such  spots  as  these  are  pilgrim  shrines, 
Shrines  to  no  code  nor  creed  confined; 
The  Delphic  groves — ^the  Palestines— 
The  Meccas  of  the  mind . ' ' 

To  the  everlasting  disgTace  of  Texas,  no  noble  monu- 
ment marks  the  spot ;  in  fact,  when  I  first  saw  it,  it  was 
part  of  a  livery  stable. 

The  plazas  were  often  filled  with  immense  Chihuahua 
wagons,  all  the  way  from  Monterey  and  San  Luis 
Potosi,  many  of  them  with  fourteen  and  eighteen  mules 
hitched  four  abreast,  and  the  shops  filled  with  Mexi- 
can saddles  and  Navajo  blankets  and  other  Mexican 
commodities. 

At  this  time  San  Antonio  was  far  from  any  railroad, 
and  enjoyed  an  immense  trade  from  Mexico,  all  of  it 
transacted  by  these  great  wagon  trains.  The  circulat- 
ing medium  was  entirely  in  silver  dollars ;  when  our 
greenbacks  were  presented,  the  merchant  invariably 
discounted  them,  all  prices  being  in  coin ;  this  dis- 
counting of  paper  money,  by  the  way,  was  kept  up  in 
Texas  long  after  specie  payments  had  been  resumed 
elsewhere. 

The  United  States  arsenal  was  in  an  unfinished  con- 
dition, having  been  captured  by  the  South  when  Texas 
seceded,  and  was  not  yet  completed ;  in  fact,  much  of 
the  importance  of  San  Antonio,  aside  from  its  trade 
with  Mexico  and  the  Kio  Grande,  is  due  to  its  having 
been  military  headquarters  for  Texas  ever  since  the 


FIVE    YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  37 

close  of  the  Mexican  war  in  1848.  We  tramped  along 
throu.i>li  the  streets  to  the  San  Pedro  S])n'ngs,  where 
we  went  into  camp  near  some  companies  of  United 
States  cavalry  stationed  here. 

The  weather,  although  in  December,  had  up  to  this 
time  been  very  beautiful — ^just  such  balmy  days  and 
delightful  nights  as  back  home  we  were  accustomed 
to  in  the  late  summer  and  early  fall ;  but  during  this  first 
n'ght  at  San  Antonio  I  experienced  my  first  "norther." 
These  ''  cold  waves,"  which  are  more  or  less  prevalent 
from  November  until  April,  constitute  most  of  the 
really  cold  weather  felt  in  this  latitude.  Of  course, 
Texas  is  an  empire  in  extent,  and  when  you  speak  of 
such  or  such  a  peculiarity  of  soil  or  climate,  in  referring 
to  Texas,  you  must  indicate  the  portion  of  the  State, 
for  in  Northern  Texas,  at  Jacksboro,  I  have  seen  the 
mercury  13°  below  zero  more  than  once.  It  is  the  sud- 
denness with  which  the  norther  comes  up  (or  down), 
and  the  conse(iuent  rai)id  fall  in  the  mercury,  often 
from  80°  or  So°  to  the  freezing  point,  or  several  degrees 
below  it,  that  makes  them  so  piercing.  Generally  be- 
fore the  advent  of  one  it  is  rather  more  still  and  sultry 
than  usual ;  as  evening  approaches,  a  dull,  dark  bank 
begins  to  rise  on  the  northern  horizon,  and  about  sun- 
down the  "  cold  wave  "  comes,  often  accompanied  by 
a  wind  with  a  velocity  of  thirty  to  forty  miles  an  hour. 
Their  force  is  usually  expended  in  about  twelve 
hours,  but  sometimes  they  continue  to  blow  for  two  or 
even  three  days. 

The  climate  of  the  part  of  Texas  so  far  seen  by  me 
had  taken  fast  hold  on  my  mind  as  approaching  the 
ideal.  Many  of  the  early  impressions,  written  down  for 
these  sketches  at  the  time,  subsequent  experience  and 
observation  have  caused  me  to  modify,  but  the  following 
verbatim  entry  in  my  diary,  written  in  December,  1866, 


38  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

on  the  climate,  I  liave  never  yet  seen  lit  to  alter: 
"  Beyond  doubt,  the  balmy  and  glorious  climate,  the 
gorgeous  skies,  the  glowing  sunsets,  the  pure  and 
bracing  atmosphere,  the  splendid  landscapes,  cannot 
be  surpassed  on  the  continent ;  and  in  the  near  future, 
when  the  railroad  shall  have  traversed  its  immense 
distances,  and  the  six-shooter  and  bowie  shall  have 
been  replaced  by  the  plow  and  school-house,  no  portion 
of  our  vast  heritage  will  present  so  many  attractions  to 
the  emigrant,  the  tourist,  or  the  invalid,  as  the  Empire 
State  of  the  Southwest." 

After  remaining  in  camp  a  few  days,  we  drew  cloth- 
ing for  such  of  the  men  as  needed  it,  replenished  our 
supply  of  rations,  and  having  exchanged  our  Mexican 
train  for  government  mule  teams,  set  out  for  Austin, 
about  ninety  or  one  hundred  miles  distant  in  a  north- 
easterly direction. 

The  character  of  the  landscape  now  began  to  change, 
and  we  were  very  visibly  ascending  into  a  more  elevated 
rolling  country,  wooded  for  the  greater  part  of  the  dis- 
tance. The  second  day  out  from  San  Antonio,  the 
more  settled  and  thrifty  appearance  of  the  country 
indicated  our  approach  to  the  German  settlement  of 
Kew  Braunfels,  which  thriving  town  we  passed  through, 
and  crossed  the  Gaudaloupe  on  a  ferryboat.  This 
whole  region,  from  Austin  southAvest,  is  settled  very 
largely  by  old  country  Germans,  and  they  have  left 
their  impress  of  industry,  order  and  economy  on  this 
section,  as  they  have  always  don€  wherever  they  have 
found  a  home  in  the  new  world. 

We  made  pretty  good  time  marching  to  Austin,  and 
on  the  third  day,  having  covered  some  thirty-five  miles, 
we  went  into  camp  on  the  hills  south w-est  of  Austin, 
and  as  the  setting  sun  lighted  up  the  scene,  and  the 
white  buildings,  so  characteristic  of  Austin  at  the  time, 


FIVE   YEARS    A    CAVALRYMAN.  39 

slioiie  out  against  the  background  of  hills  on  which  it 
is  bnilt,  it  made  a  beautiful  picture.  ''  Distance,"  in 
some  measure,  "  lent  enchantment  to  the  view,"  as  we 
found  on  nearer  acquaintance,  but,  in  addition  to  every- 
thing else,  we  felt  that  our  ''  recruit "  days  were  nearly 
over,  and  that  on  the  morrow  we  would  be  assigned  to 
the  respective  com})anies  of  our  regiment,  and  enter 
on  the  proper  and  regular  duties  of  full-fledged  soldiers. 
How  many  disappointments  and  disagreeable  things 
were  yet  before  me  will  partly  be  disclosed  to  those 
who  have  patience  and  faith  to  follow  these  sketches ; 
the  same  faith  will  be  rewarded,  too,  by  many  very 
funny  things  that  served,  like  rents  in  a  cloud,  to  break 
the  dullness  of  the  scene,  and  render  the  life  bearable, 
if  not  attractive. 

Each  night  some  of  our  party  would  desert ;  so  that 
by  the  time  we  arrived  at  Austin,  for  final  assiginnent 
to  the  regiment,  our  number  had  been  materially  re- 
duced, as  very  few,  comparatively,  deserting  from  a 
recruit  detachment  are  ever  apprehended. 


40  FIVE   YEARS   A   CAVALRYMAN. 


CHAPTEE  V. 


AUSTIN — THE  CAPITOL — STILL  A  RECRUIT — ON  THE 
ROAD — THE  LEON — THE  BRAZOS — THE  SIX-SHOOTER 
— THE  FRONTIERSMAN — ON  TO  JACKSBORO. 

We  brushed  ourselves  up  and  shook  off  some  of  the 
dust  of  the  long  march,  and  about  noon  crossed  the 
Colorado  river  on  a  ferryboat  and  marched  through 
the  city  to  the  camp  of  our  regimental  headquarters, 
which  were  in  the  rear  and  north  of  the  capitol  build- 
ing. The  work  of  assigning  us  to  our  various  com- 
panies occupied  but  a  short  time,  and  I  found  myself 
destined  for  one  of  the  seven  troops  then  stationed  at 
Jacksboro,  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles  northwest  of 
Austin,  and  on  the  extreme  frontier  of  the  State,  in 
that  direction. 

I  had  fondly  hoped  that  my  trials  as  commissary 
would  have  ended  here,  but  found  that  the  squad  of 
about  one  hundred  and  seventy-five  men  destined  for 
the  frontier  were  to  be  kept  in  a  separate  detachment 
until  we  reached  there,  and  so  I  continued  to  "wrestle" 
with  the  companj'  cooks  with  various  success  for  one 
more  month. 

Austin,  the  capital  of  Texas,  is  situated  on  the  left 
bank  of  the  Colorado,  and  the  site  is  a  most  beautiful 
and  commanding  one ;  the  rolling  hills  through  which 
the  clear  and  rai)id  Colorado  rushes  on  its  way  to  the 


FIVE    YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  41 

^iilf,  covered  with  timber;  tlie  widespread  landscape, 
broken  here  and  there  with  stretches  of  prairie,  offered 
a  ])leasing  contrast  to  the  level  countrj'  throug"h  which 
we  had  passed,  and  which  from  its  sameness  had  become 
somewhat  monotonous  and  tiresome. 

Tlie  ca])itol  building  was  on  a  commanding  eminence, 
and  faced  the  south,  at  the  head  of  a  street  known  as 
Congress  Avenue,  which  ran  toward  the  river,  the 
latter  sweeping  around  the  west  and  south  sides  of  the 
city.  It  was  built*  of  a  soft  white  stone,  and,  although 
without  any  pretentions  to  architectural  beauty,  yet, 
from  the  material  of  which  it  was  comi)osed,  and  its 
striking  situation,  it  presented  (juite  a  commanding 
appearance.  In  the  main  entrance  stood  a  modest 
monument  erected  to  the  memory  of  the  heroic  men 
who  won  the  independence  of  Texas  in  1836,  and  built 
of  the  stones  brought  from  the  ruins  of  the  Alamo  at 
San  Antonio,  where  so  many  of  these  heroes  laid  down 
their  lives.  On  the  four  upper  sides  of  the  base,  in 
large  letters,  were  the  names  of  Bonham,  Bowie, 
Crockett  and  Travis,  and  beneath  them  the  names  of 
all  the  others  who  i)erished  there.  The  sides  of  the 
shaft  were  embellished  with  ai)proprJate  legends,  one 
of  which — 

'  'Tliermopyljv  had  its  messenger  of  defeat — 
The  Alamo  had  none, ' ' 

— 's,  I  believe,  nearly  literally  true,  PiS  but  one  life  was 
saved,  that  of  a  child — a  g"rl — who  was  dropped  over 
the  walls  and  escaped  the  observation  of  the  Mexicans. 
The  '^  Child  of  the  Alamo  "  was,  I  believe,  living  at  the 
time  this  was  Avr'tten  in  Austin. 

*This  building  was  destroyed  by  lire  several  years  since,  and  while  I  re- 
write the^e  sketches  for  this  volume  the  new  and  magniiicent  capitol  building, 
on  tlie  site  of  the  old  one,  is  being  dedicated  with  imposing  ceremonies.  I 
\inderstand  that  the  monument  above  described  was  destroyed  with  the  old 
building.  The  AriHou. 


42  FIVE   YEARS  A   CAVALRYMAN. 

Tlie  Colonel  of  our  regiment,  the  veteran  David 
Hunter,  was  not  present  for  duty ;  in  fact,  never  did 
join  it,  liaving,  soon  after  tliis  time,  retired,  after  forty 
years  of  honorable  service.  The  Lieutenant-Colonel, 
S.  D.  Sturgis,  now  retired,  I  soon  found  to  be  the  idol, 
the  hcaii  ideal^  of  every  man  in  the  command,  and  fur- 
ther acquaintance  with  him  convinced  me  that  the 
affection  and  respect  of  his  men  Avere  well  deserved, 
for  the  Army  Register  never  bore  a  name  that  the 
words  "  officer  and  gentleman  "  more  completely  applied 
to  than  to  General  Sturgis. 

Nothing  of  note  occurred  during  our  stay  here,  and 
Austin  began  to  be  as  tiresome  as  Carlisle  had  been, 
for  we  had  not  yet  received  horses  or  arms,  and  were 
to  all  intents  and  purposes  just  as  much  "  recruits  "  as 
we  had  ever  been,  without  any  officer  whose  duty  it 
was  to  look  to  our  comfort. 

An  officer  of  our  regiment,  a  Lieutenant,  son  of 
Senator  Wilson  of  Massachusetts,  died  during  this 
time,  and  his  body  was  sent  Xorth,  accompanied  by  an 
officer  detailed  for  the  purpose. 

During  the  Christmas  holidays  drunkenness  was 
prevalent,  and  desertions  very  numerous,  and  I  began 
to  have  an  insight  into  the  thousand  and  one  ways  and 
means  that  a  soldier  will  indulge  in  to  get  whiskey. 
Of  course  I  had  seen  all  these  things,  or  most  of  them, 
during  the  war,  but  a  volunteer  soldier,  even  after  three 
years  active  campaigning,  finds  himself  a  novice  in  all 
things  pertaining  to  real  army  life  when  he  "joins" 
the  "  regulars,"  and  "  gets  onto  ''  the  devices  of  "  sure 
enough  "  soldiers  in  time  of  i)eace. 

On  the  morning  of  December  28th,  horses  having 
been  received  from  San  Antonio,  we  drew  rations  to 
include  the  20th  of  January,  struck  our  tents,  and  in 
the  face  of  a  cutting  norther  took  up  our  line  of  march 


FIVE   YEARS   A   CAVALRYMAN.  43 

for  Jacksboro.  The  liorses  were  foi-  the  most  part 
unbroken,  and  as  the  only  "  eciuipinent "  furnished  was 
a  forty  foot  rope,  the  cavalcade  was  rather  an  unniilitary 
one  in  appearance.  Roldiers,  however,  usually  rise 
superior  to  c'rcii]n3tances  of  this  nature,  and  before 
we  had  been  three  days  on  the  road  nearly  every  fellow 
had  a  saddle  of  some  kind.  I  presume  the  unfortunate 
natives  adjacent  to  our  route  can  (or  could)  tell  how 
they  were  obtained.  In  fact,  the  passage  of  a  mob,  like 
ours  was,  formed  an  era  in  the  lives  of  the  good  peojde 
along  the  road,  for  in  after  years  they  would  often  tix 
some  date  in  the"r  minds  by  saving:  ^'Wall^  now,  let's 
see,  it  was  the  next  spring  after  those  blasted  soldiers 
went  by  here,''  and  so  on. 

The  morn'ng  of  December  3lGt  broke  so  stormily 
that  we  reinained  in  camp  on  Georgetown  creek,  and 
experienced  a  degree  of  cold,  increased  by  sleet  and 
snow,  that  somewhat  d' spelled  my  rose-colored  views 
of  the  cl'mate.  Huge  log  hres  scarcely  enabled  us  to 
keep  warm,  and  the  old  yesr  went  out  and  the  new  one 
came  in  under  circumstances  that  afforded  gloomy  com- 
parisons between  the  past  and  present. 

January  2d,  however,  the  storm  abated,  and  we 
^'  rolled  out,"  crossing  on  the  next  day  the  Leon  river 
at  Belton,  and  on  Saturday,  the  5th,  wx  reached  "  Waco 
Tillage  "  on  the  Brazos,  w^here  one  company  of  our 
reghnent  was  stat'oned,  and  where  we  turned  over 
th'rty  of  our  men  to  it.  We  remained  here  over  Sun- 
day, and  on  Monday  crossed  the  Brazos  and  proceeded 
on  our  trip. 

After  leaving  Waco  the  character  of  the  country 
began  to  change  into  a  more  oi>en  prairie,  the  settle- 
ments and  farms  were  further  and  further  apart,  and 
everything  bore  evidence  that  we  were  leaving  civinza- 
tion  behind  us  and  ap])roaching  the  frontier. 


44  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

I  fir^t,  at  this  time,  particularly'  noticed  the  habit  of 
carrying-  ("  packing  "  they  called  it)  firearms,  new  to  me 
then,  but  soon  becoming  a  famib'ar  sight,  and  it  im- 
pressed me  as  a  most  useless  and  dangerous  habit,  and 
I  have  never  seen  any  reason  to  change  my  views. 
Every  man  and  boy,  old  and  young,  rich  or  poor,  at 
home  or  abroad,  in  church,  at  court,  the  wedding  or 
the  funeral,  from  the  "  cradle  to  the  grave,"  the  double- 
barreled  shot  gun,  or  the  old-fashioned,  brass-mounted 
dragoon  pistol,  was  inevitably  carried  by  them,  and  it 
goes  without  saving  that  they  all  knew  how  to  use 
them,  and  did  so  often  without  very  much  provocation. 
And  yet  I  cannot  now  look  back  on  the  practice  as  an 
unmixed  evil  either,  for  bar-room  brawling,  fist  fights 
and  minor  difficulties  were  pretty  much  unknown  in 
those  days.  The  treatment  experienced  by  a  bully  or 
a  bravado  was  "  short,  sharp  and  decisive  ;  "  if  he  in- 
sulted a  woman,  "  took  in  '^  a  town,  or  stole  a  horse,  he 
was  shot  off-hand  by  some  one,  who  thereby  rendered 
society  a  service,  at  much  less  expense  and  without 
the  uncertainty  and  delay  that  often  attend  the  law's 
slow  course.  Of  course,  in  the  days  I  write  of,  the 
times  were  more  or  less  out  of  joint;  the  civil  law  was 
almost  a  dead  letter ;  the  country  was  tilled  with  the 
disbanded  arm'es  of  the  collapsed  Confederacy,  and 
many  of  the  men  returning  to  find  homef3  destroyed  and 
family  ties  broken  became  reckless,  if  not  lawless. 
But  closer  acquaintance  with  th's  class  of  men  taught 
me  that  often  an  honest,  a  brave  and  a  noble  heart  was 
beating  beneath  the  rough  exterior,  and  that  life  and 
proper  y  were  safer  among  them  than  they  sometimes 
are  among  the  "slick"  fellows  who  wear  a  "boiled" 
shirt  and  live  in  the  settlement.  The  frontiersman,  as 
I  saw  him  then,  is  rai)idly  becoming  a  feature  of  the 
past;     he    is    disappearing    before     the    advance    of 


FIVE   YEARS    A    CAVALRYMAN.  45 

civilization,  like  the  Indian  and  the  bnffalo,  and  1  often 
wonder  in  my  mind  whether  or  not  his  more  cnltivated 
successor  possesses  the  good  qualities  of  real  nobility 
to  the  same  extent.  Soon  he  will  be  gone  forever, 
passed  away,  and  in  the  page  of  romance  alone  will  be 
found  his  counterpart.  But  he  blazed  out  the  pathway 
of  progress;  his  log  cabin  and  rawhide  door,  its 
puncheon  floor  and  stick  chimney  are  gone ;  he  made 
the  present  possible.  All  honor  to  the  pioneer  men  and 
women  who  were  the  advance  guard  in  the  march  oi 
the  century ! 

I  must  confess  here  that  these  reflections  are  of  a 
somewhat  mature  and  recent  date.  I  did  not  at  the 
t'me  appreciate  the  rough  characters  I  saw,  simply  be- 
cause I  did  not  know  their  worth.  I  only  formed  my 
first  impressions  fi'om  the  exterior,  which  often  mis- 
leads a  person,  but  twenty  years  among  them  gives 
weight  to  my  opinions  as  here  expressed. 


4G  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 


CHAPTER  YI. 


THE  PRAIRIE  FIRE — WEATHERFORD — THE  LAST  SET- 
TLEMENT— INDIAN  STORIES — THE  JACK  OF  CLUBS — 
VANITY — OLD  PADDY — THE  FRONTIER  AS  IT  WAS — • 
JACKSBORO — "twenty  ODD  YEARS  AGO." 

On  the  third  day  after  leaving  Waco  a  wide  stretch 
of  prairie  was  reached,  in  Johnson  county,  I  think, 
wliich  came  nearer  realizing  the  idea  of  a  "  sure  enough  " 
prairie  than  anything  I  had  yet  seen.  For  perhaps 
thirty  miles  its  vast  reach  was  unbroken  l)y  a  tree — we 
were  "  out  of  sight  of  land,"  sky  and  grass  meeting  on 
every  side.  The  appearance  of  this  prairie  in  the  dead 
of  winter  was  barren  and  desolate  in  the  extreme ; 
brown  and  sere,  and  not  a  bush  to  relieve  the  monotony 
to  the  eye ;  nothing  to  break  the  solemn  stillness  but 
the  occasional  flap])ing  of  the  broad  wings  of  the 
buzzard  as  he  wheeled  high  in  a°r,  contemplating  from 
afar  the  dissolution  of  some  unfortunate  anhnal  soon  to 
furnish  it  a  square  meal.  No  more  complete  solitude 
can  be  imagined  than  is  afforded  by  the  hushed  and 
solemn  stillness  of  one  of  these  "  seas  of  grass."  As 
we  plodded  our  weary  way  along,  clouds  of  dense 
smoke  could  be  seen  rising  some  miles  ahead  of  us, 
and  apparently  crossing  our  road  from  left  to  right. 
A  high  northwesterly  wind  was  blowing  at  the  time, 
and  we  soon  had  an  opportunity  of  witnessing  one  of 


FIVE   YEARS  A   CAVALRYMAN.  47 

the  grandest  spectacles  of  the  prairie,  without  danger 
to  ourselves,  a  very  great  advantage  so  far  as  appre- 
ciating such  a  scene  is  concerned.  The  fire  had 
originated  on  the  edge  of  our  road,  and  as  the  wind 
was  blowing  from  us,  we  were  on  the  safe  side  of  it. 
For  miles,  as  far  as  the  eye  could  reach,  the  long  line 
of  flame,  ascending  fifty  or  more  feet  in  the  air,  swept 
on  in  an  irresistible  billow  of  fire  at  the  rate  of  twenty 
miles  an  hour.  The  huge  wave  of  flame,  reflected 
against  a  black  and  wintry  sky,  the  roar  sounding  like 
the  beating  of  a  heavy  surf  on  a  rock-bound  coast,  and 
audible  for  miles,  formed  a  scene  of  terrific  grandeur,    [j 

These  prairie  fires,  often  the  result  of  carelessness 
on  the  part  of  the  "  camper  "  in  extinguishing  his  fire, 
and  sometimes  designedly  set  out  in  order  to  burn  off 
the  old  grass,  annually  at  this  time  in  Texas,  destroyed 
vast  amounts  of  fencing  and  timber.  In  later  days  leg- 
islative enactments  and  the  settling  up  of  the  country 
have  made  them  much  less  frequent. 

On  the  12th  instant  we  passed  through  Weatherford, 
the  last  settlement  that  had  any  pretentions  to  be 
called  a  village,  and  the  terminus  of  the  mail  route,  the 
mail  being  carried  to  Jacksboro  by  a  detail  of  cavalry 
sent  weekly  from  the  post.  For  a  few  miles  out  of 
Weatherford  an  occasional  farm  house  was  passed,  the 
last  one  of  which  on  the  road,  the  "  Crawford  "  place, 
at  which  we  camped  one  night,  had  a  few  years  before 
been  the  scene  of  an  Indian  massacre,  a  ]Mr.  Brown 
having  been  murdered  by  the  savages  within  a  few 
yards  of  his  house.  From  this  point  on  toward  Jacks- 
boro we  were  in  the  apparently  unbroken  wilderness, 
not  a  single  clearing,  home  or  place  of  abode  to  be 
seen,  and  the  freighters  who  drove  our  train  filled  our 
minds  with  blood-curdling  Indian  tales,  so  that  behind 
each  tree  or  bush  I  imagined  lurked  an  Indian  brave 


48  FIVE    YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

before  I  got  to  eTacksboro.  On  Monday,  January  14tlL, 
1867,  at  about  three  in  the  afternoon,  we  came  in  sight 
of  Jacksboro,  and  sorry  and  forlorn  a  place  as  it  was,  it 
loomed  up  as  an  oasis  does  to  the  traveler  in  the  desert, 
for  there,  their  white  tents  clustered  on  the  pubbc 
square,  was  our  regiment  at  last,  or  at  least  the  battalion 
of  it  to  which  we  were  assigned,  and  "  recruit  days " 
were  over. 

We  marched  on  to  the  parade  ground  of  the  camp 
just  as  the  bugles  were  sounding  retreat,  were  inform- 
ally inspected  by  the  officers  present,  had  supper,  and 
were  handed  over  to  the  First  Sergeants  of  the  various 
troops  for  assignment  to  quarters.  The  Captain  of  my 
company  was  an  undersized  little  fellow,  a  brevet 
Major  (every  officer  had  a  "brevet"  rank  at  this  time, 
of  which,  more  hereafter),  very  vain,  and,  as  I  learned, 
imagined  that  he  bore  a  striking  resemblance  to  the 
first  Napoleon,  both  in  size  and  appearance.  The  sol- 
diers had  an  irreverent  way  of  nicknaming  every  officer 
who  had  any  salient  points  about  him,  and  the  little 
Major  was  known  as  the  "  Jack-of-Clubs,"  to  both  men 
and  officers. 

The  vanity  of  the  Major,  as  to  his  fancied  resemblance 
to  Napoleon,  soon  dawned  on  me,  and,  as  the  late  Mr. 
Lincoln  would  have  said,  "  reminded  me  of  an  anec- 
dote." (I  never  mentioned  the  anecdote  to  the  Major, 
as  may  be  supi)osed.)  Up  in  Pennsylvania,  dimng  the 
war,  there  lived  in  a  little  town  one  Pete  Dodsou,  a 
staid,  steady,  sober,  respectable  man  of  middle  age,  and 
who  was  employed  in  a  responsible  position  by  a  rail- 
road company.  Pete  had  been  casually  told  one  day  by  a 
soldier  home  on  a  furlough  that  he  bore  a  very  striking 
resemblance  to  General  Joe  Hooker,  then  in  command 
of  the  army  of  the  Potomac,  and  whom  Pete  enthusias- 
tically  admired.     These   words  of  the  soldier,  lightly 


FIVE    YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  49 

spoken,  nearly  ruined  Pete,  for  his  weakness  beeame 
known,  and  he  took  to  treating*  and  drinkini»-  with  every 
fellow  who  remarked  to  him  how  8trikin<»ly  he  looked 
like  "Joe"  Hooker.  Meeting  Pete  about  this  time,  I 
remarked:  "By  the  way,  Mr.  Dodeon,  did  anyone  ever 
mention  your  close  resemblance  to  General  Hooker ! " 
His  face  lighting-  up,  he  slai)ped  me  on  the  shoulder, 
and  exclaimed  :  "  By  Jove  !  old  fellow,  1  have  been  told 
that  before  ;  come  in  and  have  something." 

The  speedy  downfall,  however,  of  "  Fighting  Joe," 
after  the  faux-  pan  of  Chancellorville,  restored  Pete  to 
liis  senses,  and  he  again  became  a  sober  man. 

Having  lived  on  hard-tack  for  two  months,  the  soft 
bread  issued  to  us  for  supper  was  a  luxury,  and  I  turned 
into  bed  congratulating  myself  on  my  recruit  days 
being  ended  and  my  duties  as  commissary  being  brought 
to  a  close. 

At  reveille  the  next  day  I  had  a  good  look  at  the 
officers,  non-commissioned  officers  and  men  of  my 
comi)any,  and  was  well  pleased  with  their  general  ap- 
pearance; particularly  so,  as  I  had  understood  all 
along  that  it  was  one  of  the  best  companies  in  the 
regiment. 

The  troops  were  quartered  in  "A"  tents,  some  of 
them  pitched  on  the  scpiare,  one  comi)any  about  the 
fioutheast  corner  of  the  square,  and  one  other  in  the 
rear  of  the  west  side  of  the  square.  The  stables  stood 
on  the  south  side  of  the  square,  running  south,  the 
only  other  building  on  that  side  being  the  two-story 
stone  structure  destroyed  to  make  room  for  new  build- 
ings in  188G. 

The  commanding  officer,  Major  and  Brevet  Colonel 
S.  H.  Starr,  had  his  headquarters  in  a  tent  at  the  south- 
west corner  of  the  square,  surrounded  by  a  picket 
stockade,   and   this    same    Colonel    Starr,  universally 


50  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

known  as  "  Old  Paddy,"  had  been  represented  to  us  as 
a  "terror."  A  "terror"  to  evil-doers  he  was,  but  a 
braver,  more  just,  or  more  honorable  officer  never  wore 
the  uniform,  although  his  peculiar  disposition  was  such, 
that,  like  the  Irishman,  it  might  be  said  of  him,  "  he 
was  never  at  peace  only  when  he  was  at  war." 

I  think  at  this  time  there  were  only  two  tumble-down 
old  buildings  on  the  north  side  of  the  square,  one  of 
which  was  occupied  as  a  grocery,  in  the  rear  of  which 
was  a  stone  building  (now  gone),  used  as  the  sutler's 
store.  A  concrete  building  stood  on  the  southeast 
corner  of  the  square,  an  old  frame  on  the  northwest 
corner,  a  dilapidated  "rawhide"  house  on  the  west 
side  of  the  square,  used  as  court-house,  and  a  dozen  or 
more  log  houses  scattered  around  the  suburbs.  This 
was  the  Jacksboro  of  "Twenty  Odd  Yearp,  Ago." 

Before  the  late  war  the  overland  mail  ran  through 
Jacksboro  (Butterii eld's  route),  and  quite  a  population 
had  come  into  Jack  county.  But  the  war  had  with- 
drawn a  large  portion  of  the  men,  the  United  States 
posts  north  of  Eed  river  had  been  abandoned,  the 
Indians,  no  longer  under  restraint,  had  gone  on  the 
warpath,  and  the  majority  of  the  settlers  had  abandoned 
their  homes  and  moved  back  into  the  interior.  Black- 
ened chimney-stacks  and  ruined  ranches  existed  all  over 
the  country,  and  with  the  exception  of  a  few  families  on 
Carroll's  creek  and  a  small  settlement  on  the  Keechi, 
the  entire  population,  nearly,  was  gathered  in  and  about 
the  village  of  Jacksboro. 

Toward  the  west,  with  the  exception  of  two  or  three 
families  in  Young  county,  no  settlement  existed  between 
Jacksboro  and  the  Rio  Grande ;  to  the  northward  an 
unbroken  wilderness  stretched  to  the  Kansas  line;  to 
tlie  northwest  an  occasional  Mexican  settlement  in 
northern  ^ew  Mexico  only  interrupted  the  route  to 


FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  51 

Santa  Fe ;  tlie  Staked  Plains,  now  teoniin*^-  with  life, 
and  the  Panhandle  as  well,  were  then  all  gronped  under 
the  coin})rehensive  title  of  the  "  (ireat  American 
Desert,"  and  known  as  such  on  the  map,  and  the  vast 
scope  of  country' indicated  was  the  home  of  the  Kiowa, 
the  Comanche  and  the  Arrapahoe,  and  the  buffalo 
roamed  in  countless  herds  all  over  it. 


52  FIVE   YEAKS    A    CAVALRYMAN. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


THE  MODEL  JAIL — THE  SPADE  MIGHTIER  THAN  THE 
SWORD— THE  PICKET  HOUSE — IN  THE  WOODS — ^THE 
.TACK  RABBIT — THE  COTTON-TAIL — THE  AFFIDAVIT 
MAN — NEW  DUTIES. 

The  rock  building  which  stood  on  the  south  side  of 
the  square  had  orighially  been  used  as  a  store  below 
and  Masonic  Hall  on  the  second  floor,  but  it  was  occu- 
pied now  as  the  comm'ssary  quarters  for  the  command. 
The  jail,  long  since  destroyed,  a  rude  stone  buUding 
south  of  town,  not  far  from  the  creek,  was  the  Quarter- 
master's "  depot." 

I  believe  this  jail  never  had  had  but  one  occupant,  a. 
negro,  confined  for  theft;  but  the  terms  of  court  were 
few  and  far  between,  and  the  jail  not  being  a  very 
secure  building,  the  citizens  had  taken  the  precaution 
to  hang  him  to  prevent  his  escape  from  justice. 

During  the  few  months  previous  to  tMs  time,  s'nce 
July  4th,  18(>t>,  when  Jacksboro  was  first  occupied  by  two 
coini)anies  of  cavalry,  no  Indian  dei)redations  had  been 
committed  in  the  vicinity,  but  settlers  from  the  interior 
were  coming  in  da'ly  with  information  of  outrages  per^ 
petrated  at  a  distance.  It  was  not  possible,  however, 
for  the  commanding  officer  to  afford  them  much  relief, 
as  the  troops  ])resent  had  but  few  horses,  not  enougli 
saddle  equipments,  and  but  a  scant  supply"  of  either 
arms  or  amnuinition.     It  seems  incredible  that  such  a 


FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  53 

state  of  affairs  could  have  existed  at  a  front -er  ])ost, 
hostile  hidiaiiG  all  around,  and  nearly  three  hundro',1  and 
lifty  niileB  from  the  Guj)i)ly  depot,  yet  it  is  exactly  true. 
This,  too,  it  must  be  remembered,  was  at  the  cloce  of 
the  war,  when  millions  of  arms  and  supplies  were  stored 
in  the  government  arsenals^  and  it  seemed  to  me  then 
that  "  come  one  had  blundered." 

Like  most  volunteer  soldiers,  I  had  always  im'^<j^ined 
that  the  "  regulars  "  were  better  fed,  paid,  clothed,  quar- 
tered, and  treated  very  much  better  generally  than 
"militia,"  but  it  did  not  take  long  to  dispel  this  and 
many  other  fond  illusions  1  had  cherished.  Then  I 
thought,  well,  j)erhaps  this  condition  is  peculiar  to  the 
"S"xth;"  wait  until  I  see  some  other  command;  they 
w'll  aw  my  idea  of  what  the  army  should  be ;  but  alas ! 
eub::equent  exi>er]ence  ere  long  d'spelled  my  dreams 
of  the  "  pomp,  pride  and  c'rcumstance  of  glorious  war," 
and,  as  will  be  seen,  I  soon  found  that  in  our  army  on 
the  frontier  the  "  spade  is  might'er  than  the  swor  J.'' 

It  was  designed  to  buUd  log  houses  for  the  command 
on  the  square,  and  two  or  three  of  them  had  been 
fin' shed.  They  were  to  be  fourteen  by  twenty  feet  in 
size,  and  seven  feet  clear  in  height,  s'x  of  these  huts 
for  each  troop.  Five  sets  of  these  were  bu'lt,  standing 
in  the  m'ddle  of  the  square,  and  fachig  the  south,  and 
they  were  of  a  style  of  architecture  pecul'ar  to  Jacks- 
boro  and  its  vlc'nity,  known  locally  as  ''p'cket"  houses. 
I  think  I  am  correct  in  saying  that  the  soldiers  origin- 
ated th's  "style" — log  houses  "set  on  end,"  as  some 
one  expressed  it.  The  building  of  one  was  simple  ;  a 
trench  of  the  i)roper  s'ze  was  dug,  say  one  foot  wide 
and  deep,  four  extra-sized  posts  were  placed  at  the 
corner",  then  the  remainder  of  the  "  pickets,"  usually 
from  four  to  six  inches,  through,  were  sawed  a  proper 
length  and  set  in  the  ditch  or  trench,  side  by  side,  a 


54  FIVE    YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

"  plate  "  was  spiked  on  the  top,  a  roof,  slightly  incriied, 
was  made  by  laying  poles  side  by  side,  the  interstices 
filled  with  twigs,  and  the  whole  covered  thicklj^  w  th 
dirt.  The  spaces  in  the  walls  .were  "  chinked'' with 
chii)S  and  plastered  with  mud;  doors  made  of  boxes 
from  the  Quartermaster's  department  were  hung,  and 
with  a  rude  chimney  and  capacious  fireplace,  a  house 
was  tin'shed  in  no  time.  The  weak  point  about  the 
mud  roof  was  that  it  continued  to  rain  for  forty-eight 
hours  inside  after  the  rain  had  ceased  to  fall  out  doors. 

In  the  course  of  a  few  days  I  was  placed  in  charge 
of  a  party  of  ten  men  and  a  wagon,  and  sent  out  with 
twenty  days  rations  to  establish  a  chopping  camp,  as 
the  Colonel  had  concluded  to  proceed  to  build  the  log- 
huts  for  the  entire  command,  as  above  described.  One 
of  the  men  I  had  with  me  was  just  such  a  character  as 
can  only  be  found  in  the  army  (I  presume,  however, 
the  navy  also  has  its  share  of  them) ;  well  educated, 
well  raised,  but  a  total  wreck  from  whiskey  and  its 
attendant  evils.  During  the  war  he  had  been  ass'stant 
surgeon  in  the  navy ;  then  enlisted  in  the  army  as  a 
hospital  steward,  been  reduced  to  the  ranks,  and  was 
now  doing  a  private's  dwtj  in  our  company.  In  fact, 
if  it  was  not  for  these  '"  strays,"  the  ranks  would  be 
hard  to  fill.  I  remember  one  time  the  Adjutant  was 
compelled  to  confine  his  best  clerk,  an  Irishman  of 
course,  for  drunkenness,  and  said  to  him :  "  How  is  it, 
Kelly,  whenever  I  get  a  clerk  worth  anything,  he  is  a 
drunkard?"  "Sir,"  replied  the  soldier,  "if  it  wasn't 
for  Avhiskey,  there  wouldn't  be  any  clerks  in  the  army." 

I  have  of  late  years  tried  to  locate  the  place  where  I 
camped  at  this  time  and  cut  thousands  of  "  pickets  " 
for  (juarters,  fences,  corrals,  etc.,  but  camiot  exactly 
hit  the  i)lace,  but  it  was  very  near  where  Judge  Stod- 
dard now  lives,  or  perhaps  north  of  his  farm. 


FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  55 

All  epidemic  broke  out  ainoii«>-  the  horses  in  February, 
owiiiii',  perhaps,  to  the  poor  quality  of  hay — prairie  ^rass 
cut  late  ill  the  fall,  and  with  about  as  much  nourishment 
in  it  as  in  a  match,  and  also  to  usin<»-  the  musty  corn 
hauled  from  Grayson  county,  and  furnished  to  Uncle 
Sam  at  three  dollars  and  twenty  cents  a  bushel.  Two 
teams  were  kept  busy  hauling-  the  dead  animals  off 
each  morning',  and  the  "  affidavit  men  "  were  kept  busy 
*' swearing  them  off"  the  papers.  Ah!  what  recollec- 
tions come  up  in  my  mind  as  the  face  of  John  Qulnn, 
the  "  boss  "  in  this  line,  rises  before  me.  I  will  later 
on  devote  a  chapter  to  reminiscences  of  these  most 
useful,  in  fact  indispensable,  characters,  without  whom 
lost  or  stolen  propeiiy,  dead  animals,  or  the  thousand 
and  one  mishaps  to  life  and  property,  could  never  be 
"gotten  off  the  papers.''  The  " affidavit  man *' was  a 
man  of  wonderful  and  convenient  memory ;  he  could 
forget  an  incident  or  remember  it  at  will,  and  this 
"  mind  power  "  always  moved  in  the  "  proper  channel  " 
and  in  the  correct  ultimate  direction,  so  far  as  the 
"  papers  "  of  the  officer  accountable  for  the  projierty 
were  concerned. 

The  three  weeks  we  spent  in  the  woods,  during  most 
of  which  time  the  weather  was  delightful,  was  like  a 
"  picnic ; "  no  military  duty  to  perform,  our  time  at  our 
own  disposal,  after  the  quota  of  log?,  were  cut,  which 
was  generally  completed  by  noon,  and  in  the  afternoon 
and  evening  we  hunted,  and  as  wild  turkey  then 
abounded  in  the  immediate  vicinity,  and  'coon  and 
'possum  were  plenty,  our  larder  was  well  su})plied,  and 
we  literally  lived  on  the  fat  of  the  land. 

The  "jack  rabbit"  was  a  new  "critter"  to  me,  who 
had  never  seen  any  but  the  domestic  rabbit,  and,  in 
truth,  I  don't  think  the  naturalist  has  CA^er  yet  exactly 
described  this  animal.     It  is  not  correct  to  say  he  is 


56  FIVE    YEAKS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

the  Eng'lisli  hare,  for  he  is  not;  the  said  hare  is  not 
nearly  so  large  as  our  jack  or  "  mule-ear"  rabbit.  Fur- 
thermore, I  am  led  to  believe  that  the  "cotton-tail"  o^ 
Texas  is  of  a  very  different  species  from  those  found 
east  of  the  Mississippi  river;  he  is  certainly  smaller 
and  differently  shai)ed,  and  his  habits  are  dissimilar. 

Toward  the  end  of  February  we  had  cut  and  sent  in 
sufficient  timber  for  the  purposes  required,  and  I  broke 
camp  and  moved  into  the  post. 

The  next  day  I  was  relieved  from  comj^any  duty  and 
appointed  Quartermaster  Sergeant  of  the  post,  the 
duties  of  which  i)osition  were  far  pleasanter,  as  my  time 
was  my  own.  I  had  a  comfortable  office  and  two  clerks, 
one  of  whom,  Ed.  Turner,  long  since  "  gone  before,"  was 
one  of  God's  noblemen  in  every  sense  of  the  word,  and 
many  of  our  old  citizens  will  so  remember  him,  and 
they  will  furthermore  remember  him  with  affection  and 
respect.  He  resided  here  after  his  discharge,  and  died 
of  consumption  in  1872. 


FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  5T 


CHAPTER  YIII. 


CALIFORNIA  JACK,  THE  ARGONAUT — THE  QUICKSAND — 
THE  TONKAWA,  CAPTAIN  CHARLEY — THE  LITTLE 
JOKER — PINE-TOP,  OR  WHITE  MULE. 

Mention  has  been  made  in  a  previous  chapter  of 
Colonel  Starr,  our  commanding  ofldcer,  who  was  at  this 
time  the  Second  Major  of  the  regiment,  and  who  was 
an  odd  character.  He  had  lost  one  arm  during-  the  late 
war,  had  met  during  his  long  service  with  one  or  more 
"  set  backs  "  in  rank,  the  result  of  his  temper,  and  all 
these  things,  together  with  his  having  seen  scores  of 
younger  men  promoted  over  his  head,  had  soured  his 
disposition  and  made  him  irascible,  unreasonable  and 
"  cranky  "  in  the  extreme.  As  he  was,  however,  stricter 
and  more  "  military  "  with  the  officers  than  he  was  with 
the  eidisted  men,  he  stood  in  high  estimation  with  the 
latter  ;  but  the  newly  arrived  Second  Lieutenant,  fresh 
from  the  ''  Point,"  very  soon  had  the  corners  rounded 
off  him  by  contact  with  "  Old  Paddy." 

"  California  Jack,"  a  Lieutenant  of  the  regiment,  long- 
since  on  the  retired  list  from  disabilities  contracted  in 
the  line  of  his  duty,  was  surely  a  character  that,  had 
Bret  Harte  known  him,  would  certainly  have  adorned 
the  pages  of  his  inimitable  sketches  of  the  days  of  "49. 
I  cannot  do  him  justice  either  in  his  appearance, 
his    oddities,    or  in   recording-  any   of  the   wonderful 


58  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

remiiiisceiices  which  he  related  to  me  from  time  to 
time.  Standing  six  feet  three  in  his  stockings,  rough 
and  uncouth  in  manner,  loud  of  voice,  often  i)rofane  in 
speech,  and  more  or  less  addicted  to  the  flowing  bowl, 
lie  was  a  curious  specimen  of  the  officer  and  gentle- 
man. He  had  gone  to  California  with  the  "Argonauts  " 
in  the  "  fall  of  '49  or  spring  of  '50,"  had  experienced  all 
the  ups  and  downs  of  the  life  incident  to  those  stirring 
times;  had  served  as  Major  in  a  California  regiment 
during  the  war,  and  at  its  close  had  been  promoted  into 
the  regular  army  and  assigned  to  the  •'  Sixth."  He  was 
dogmatic,  positive — claiming  and  asserting  a  familiar 
acquaintance  with  every  subject  from  divinity  to  sea- 
manship, inclusive;  but  "  frontier-craft,"  if  I  may  use 
such  a  term,  was  his  forte. 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that  the  majority  of  the  good 
stories  that  he  told  me,  in  which  he  was  the  hero,  will 
not  bear  chronicling  in  these  sketches.  Sitting  in  the 
Quartermaster's  office  one  day,  he  and  the  wagon- 
master  had  been  "swapping"  some  thrilling  yarns,  or 
rather  Jack,  as  was  his  custom,  had  been  holding  forth, 
and  the  other  listening  to  fearful  tales  of  hand-to-hand 
encounters  with  Apaches  and  grizzlies,  and  he  had 
wound  \i\)  with  a  quicksand  experience  in  the  Gila. 
"  Speaking  of  quicksands,"  said  the  other,  finally  getting 
in  a  word,  "reminds  me  of  onetime  when  I  crossed 
the  Canadian,  being  then  wagonmaster  under  Van  Dorn, 
in  the  old  army  before  the  war.  The  crossing  was  a 
very  dangerous  one,  the  only  chance  of  getting  over 
safely  was  in  keeping  the  animals  moving  as  rapidly  as 
possible,  and  before  crossing  my  train,  part  of  which 
cons  sted  of  i)ack-mules,  I  cautioned  the  drivers  not  to 
allow  the  animals,  under  any  circumstances,  to  stop. 
The  train  got  across  all  right,  with  the  exception  of  one 
Mexican,  who  stopped  to  adjust  his  pack,  and  as  soon 


FIVE   YEARH    A    (^AVALllYMAN.  59 

as  I  saw  that  he  had  halted,  knowing  he  was  '  gone,'  I 
pulled  out  my  watch,  and  in  exactly  thirty  seconds  his 
sombrero  was  lying  on  the  sand  and  the  tips  of  the 
mule's     ears    were    just     disappearing    from    sight." 

"  Whew  !  "  said  Jack,  "  that's  a lie  !  "     ''  Certainly 

it  is,"  replied  the  wagonmaster;  "I  thought  we  were 
telling  lies.  Lieutenant !  " 

It  being  the  intention  of  the  government  to  build  a 
permanent  post  either  at  Jacksboro  or  north  of  the 
West  Fork  of  the  Trinity,  for  the  protection  of  the 
frontier,  the  tribe  of  Tonka wa  Indians  were  forwarded 
from  Austin  in  the  early  spring  to  act  as  scouts  and 
guides,  similar  to  the  manner  in  which  the  Pawnees 
were  used  on  the  plains.  The  whole  tribe,  men,  women, 
and  children,  numbered  about  one  hundred  and  eighty, 
and  were  aptly  described  by  a  Texan  writer  as  the 
"  disgusting  remnant  of  a  once  powerful  tribe,"  with 
one  good  quality,  however, — they  had  always  been  true 
and  loyal  to  the  white  man.  Sam  Houston  had  alwayj 
been  their  fiiend,  and  they  looked  up  to  him  as  the 
"Great  Father,"  and  in  view  of  the  fact  that  their 
friendship  for  the  whites  had  never  been  broken  nor 
marked  by  treachery  on  their  part,  it  was  only  right 
that  the  remnant  should  be  protected.  The  State  of 
Texas  at  this  time  fed  them,  but  a  year  or  two  subse- 
quently they  were  turned  over  to  the  Federal  govern- 
ment to  care  for.  Colonel  Marcy,  in  his  interesting- 
work,  gives  a  full  and  entertaining  account  of  this  tribe, 
their  habits,  traditions  and  history,  his  observations 
having  been  made  many  years  before  mine,  when  the 
tribe  retained  more  vividly  their  aboriginal  character- 
istics, and  before  they  had  deteriorated  by  contact  with, 
and  by  living  as  " pensioners  on  the  bounty"  of  the 
whites.  Like  most  savages,  when  thrown  into  contact 
with  the  white  race,  they  had  contracted  all  its  vices 


60  FIVE   YEARS   A   CAVALRYMAN. 

and  acquired  none  of  its  virtures ;  loved  "  fire-water," 
horse-racing  and  gambling,  and  despised  work  as  be- 
neath the  dignity  of  warriors.  "  Captain  Charley,"  the 
chief,  a  short,  thick-set  fellow,  delighted  in  a  soldier 
coat  and  military  hat,  his  shoulders  usually  adorned  wJth 
Colonel's  straps,  and  the  hat  covered  with  all  the  old 
cross-sabres  he  could  attach  to  it.  Being  in  Colonel 
Starr's  tent  one  day,  the  Colonel  said  to  him :  "  Why 
don't  you  and  your  tribe  take  up  a  lot  of  this  land,  go 
to  work,  plant  corn,  build  you  houses,  and  try  and  live 
like  white  men  ? "  Said  Charley :  "  Why  you  no  plant 
corn,  Colonel?"  The  Colonel  replied,  "Oh,  you  see, 
Charley,  I  am  a  soldier,  an  officer ;  I'm  not  supi>osed 
to  work."  Charley  drew  himself  up,  and,  slapping  his 
breast,  exclaimed:  "Ugh!  Colonel,  me  and  you  all  the 
same ;  you  soldier,  you  no  work ;  me  warrior,  me  no 
work."  The  old  school-book  story  of  the  conversation 
between  Alexander  the  Great  and  the  robber  somehow 
or  other  comes  up  in  a  person's  mind.  The  Tonkawas 
were  sent  to  Fort  Griffin  upon  its  establishment  (first 
it  was  called  Camp  Wilson)  and  remained  there  as  long- 
as  it  was  a  military  post;  the  remnant  is  now  in  the 
Territory. 

To  while  away  the  monotony  of  camp  life  the  boys 
at  this  time  got  out  a  weekly  paper  known  as  the 
"  Little  Joker,"*  all  neatly  written,  no  i)rinting  press 
then  being  near  by,  and  the  copy  would  circulate  until 
it  was  worn  out,  and  afforded  much  amusement  to 
officers  as  well  as  men. 

About  this  time  I  first  became  accjuainted  with  a 
liquid  preparation,  or  drink,  known  as  "pine-top"  or 
"  white-mule  "  whiskey.     Corn,  I  presume,  was  its  basis, 

*A  newspaper  called  the  '  'White  Man' '  had  been  published  at  Jacksboro 
before  the  war,  for  a  short  time,  but  the  "Flea, "  later  on,  was  the  reai 
pioneer  neW8i)aper  of  the  frontier. 


FIVE    YEARS    A    TAVALRVMAN.  61 

l3iit  of  its  other  ingTedieiits  or  its  manner  of  manufac- 
ture I  know  nothing,  except  that  it  was  fearfully  and 
wonderfully  made.     It  was   clear  and   white   to    look 
upon,  but  mixed  with  water  it  became  milky  and  oavo 
out  an  odor  suggestive  of  a  turpentine  emulsion.     Of 
its  "drunk  producing"  properties  no  doubt  can  exist, 
and  the  natives  found  a  ready  sale  for  it  to  the  boys  at 
prices  varying  from  three  to  five  dollars  a  canteen  full. 
The  worst  whiskey  of  the   old   States  in   ante  helium 
times  was  bad;  it  only  cost  from  twenty  to  twenty-five 
cents    a    gallon    in    those    "  halcyon  days  of  yore ; " 
Louisiana  rum  is  a  fearful  means  of  self-destruction ; 
Arkansas  "  chained  lightning"  and  Mexican  aqua  dente 
both  accomplish  their  purpose  with  neatness  and  dis- 
patch, but  I  have  never  tasted  so  villainous  a  compound 
as  "  white-mule."     It  has  passed  away,  like  many  an- 
other product  of  simj)ler   and  homelier   days,  and   I 
doubt    whether  its    effect   was   any   worse   than   the 
"goods"  now  put    up  in    more  attractive    style   and 
'flavor,  but  whose  "  ways  lead  down  to  death  "  all  the 
same.     I  don't  think  the  "surplus"  was  increased  by 
anj^  revenue  derived  from  "  pine-top."     I  think  it  was 
"free"  as  the  air  of  the  west  that  rocked  the  trees 
from  which  it  took  its  name,  although  not  so  mild  as 
the  moonshine  that  silently  witnessed  its  manufacture. 


62  FIVE   YEARS   A    OAVALRYMAN. 


CHAPTEE  IX. 


JAOKSBORO  ABANDONED — ON  THE  MARCH — THE  BUF* 
lALO — THE  ^AND-BURR — THE  TARANTULA — FORT 
BELKT  AP. 

Toward  tlie  end  of  April,  1867,  one  of  the  dispensa- 
tions peculiar  to  army  matters,  known  as  "  special 
orders,"  directed  the  abandonment  of  Jacksboro  as  a 
military  post,  two  of  the  companies  being  ordered  to 
Buffalo  Springs,  in  Clay  county,  about  twenty  miles 
north  of  Jacksboro,  which  point  had  been  selected  by 
the  War  Department  as  the  site  for  a  new  four-company 
cavalry  post.  The  remaining  four  companies  were 
ordered  to  old  Fort  Belknap,  in  Young  county,  some 
forty  miles  due  west,  and  on  the  line  of  the  old  over- 
land route  to  California. 

My  company  was  one  of  those  destined  for  Buffalo 
Springs,  but  at  the  request  of  the  Quartermaster  I  was 
detailed  to  accomi)any  that  portion  of  the  command 
ordered  to  Belknap.  The  object  in  occupying  Fort 
Belknap  at  this  time  was  with  a  view  to  rebuilding,  or 
making  estimates  i)reparatory  to  rebuilding,  the  fort, 
which  had  been  built  and  garrisoned  as  a  four-company 
infantry  post  before  the  war,  but  which  had  been  aban- 
doned when  Twiggs  turned  over  all  of  Uncle  Sam's 
l)roperty  in  Texas  to  the  Confederacy  in  1861,  and  was 
now  in  a  ruinous  condition. 


FIVE    YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  63 

Some  days  were  R])ent  in  sliipi)!!!^'  one-third  of  all 
the  stores  and  munitions  to  Buffalo  Springs  and  two- 
thirds  to  Belknap,  all  of  which  accomplished,  I  packed 
myself  and  my  effects  on  the  top  of  an  old  horse 
branded  Q  M  D,  and,  accompanied  by  a  i)ortion  of  F 
troop  as  an  escort,  rolled  out  of  Jacksboro  on  the 
morning  of  a  beautiful  April  day. 

My  duties  at  Jacksboro  for  the  past  month  had  been 
entirely  in-doors,  and  I  was  not  prepared  for  the  beau- 
tiful and  enchanting  appearance  of  the  landscape,  as  I 
now  for  the  first  time  saw  the  prairies  in  all  their  spring 
beauty.  The  gorgeous  wild  flowers,  covering  the  green 
sward  in  a  thousand  hues,  that  would  have  made  many 
a  cultivated  flower  garden  blush  with  envy, — numbers 
of  them  were  new  to  me, — the  splendid  grass,  covering 
the  earth  with  a  luxuriant  matting ;  the  clear  atmos- 
phere, the  pure  and  bracing  breezes  sweeping  from  the 
gulf,  all  combined  to  enchant  me  with  my  first  Texas 
spring.  And,  after  all  these  years,  each  recurring 
spring  here  is  as  delightful  to  me  as  ever ;  nowhere,  in 
my  knowledge,  does  nature  so  completely  re-invigorate 
ever;y'thing  and  fill  everything  with  new  life  as  it  does 
each  spring  in  Xorthwest  Texas. 

The  native  expressed  all  this  in  few  words  when  he 
talked  about  "  grass  risin',"  and  the  season  of  the  new 
grass  each  year  meant  more  calves,  plenty  of  milk, 
fresh  butter,  "  frying  chickens,"  and  sich,  all  of  which 
were  an  unknown  quantity  during  the  fall  and  winter, 
for,  at  the  time  I  write  of,  milk  and  butter  were  abso- 
lutely absent  from  the  tables  of  the  natives  during  the 
winter,  and  I  have  often  heard  the  "  old-timer"  remark 
that  he  "  didn't  care  for  butter  and  milk  when  it  was 
out  of  season." 

We  camped  at  Rock  creek  the  first  night  out,  said  to 
bave  been  a  favorite  passway  for  parties  of  Indians  on 


64  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

their  periodical  raids.  The  next  day,  on  the  prairie  near 
Flat  Top  Mountain,  we  came  in  sight  of  a  herd  of 
buffalo,  perhaps  a  couple  of  thousand  of  them.  We^ 
had  seen  several  carcasses  along  the  road  of  huge  old 
fellows  who,  driven  out  from  the  herd  by  the  younger 
ones,  had,  like  "  dethroned  Lears,"  wandered  off  to  die 
in  solitude ;  but  seeing  a  "sure  enough"  herd  of  buffalo 
was  realizing  a  dream  of  childhood.  Discipline  was  for 
the  moment  forgotten,  and  leaving  a  Corporal's  guard 
with  the  train,  we  rode  at  breakneck  speed  after  the 
herd  and  succeeded  in  killing  two  fine  cows  and  cap- 
turing five  calves  of  perhaps  five  weeks  old.  Most 
horses  become  unmanageable  and  excited  on  their  first 
acquaintance  with  buffalo,  but  my  old  horse  then  and 
there  earned  the  name  I  bestowed  on  him,  "  The 
Philosopher."  He  exhibited  neither  fear  nor  surprise, 
and,  I  must  add,  he  did  not  exhibit  any  speed  either. 
Aside  from  the  novelty  of  hunting  and  killing  buffalo  it 
can  hardly  be  called  legitimate  sport,  as  the  great, 
unwieldy  brutes  present  a  target  that  is  difiicult  to 
miss,  and  on  an  active  horse  you  can  ride  around  then% 
even  when  they  are  running  their  best.  They  can, 
however,  get  over  the  ground  faster  than  would  be 
supposed  from  their  appearance,  which  is  very  clumsy. 
In  warm  weather,  in  this  latitude,  their  bodies  were 
devoid  of  hair,  except  on  the  neck  and  shoulders  and 
the  great  mop  on  their  heads. 

The  place  where  we  struck  this  herd  was  close  by 
the  spot  where,  four  years  later,  Warren's  train  was 
captured  and  the  teamsters  massacred  by  Indians,  and 
where  a  rude  monument  of  wood  was  erected  to  their 
memory,  all  of  which  will  be  related  in  due  time.  The 
buffalo  was  fair  eating,  about  as  good  as  grass-fed  beef, 
neither  better  nor  worse,  and  all  the  stories  about  its 
peculiarly  delicious  flavor,  I  found  to  be  hosh.     The 


FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  65 

fact  is,  the  domestic  animal  of  any  kind,  let  it  be  beef, 
turkey  or  mankind,  is  an  improvement  on  those  in  a 
state  of  nature,  all  theories  to  the  contrary  notwith- 
standing. I  learned  from  the  old  settlers  that  it  wati 
only  of  late  years  that  buffalo  had  been  numerous  in 
this  region,  the  theor^^  accounting  for  the  vast  herds 
that  at  this  time  and  up  to,  say,  1878,  covered  all  Texas 
west  of  the  Brazos,  was  that  the  building  of  the  Union 
Pacific  road  had  divided  the  range  and  driven  millions 
of  them  south.  But  the  "  place  that  knew  him  knows 
him  no  more,"  and  to-day,  it  is  stated  by  the  Smithson- 
ian officials,  that  the  American  bison  is  practically 
extinct  within  the  limits  of  the  United  States.  I  shall 
later  on  sjjeak  of  the  vandalism,  cruelty  and  greed  that 
slaughtered  untold  thouGands  of  these  magnificent 
brutes  for  their  hides  (not  their  robes ^  for  the  rol)es  in 
this  region  were  of  little  commercial  value,  OAving  to 
the  latitude)  alone,  worth  perhaps  one  dollar  aj)iece. 
It  had  often  been  predicted  that  the  Indian  and  buffalo 
would  disappear  together,  but  the  Indian  has  survived 
him  a  few  years,  although  it  won't  be  long  before  he 
joins  the  buffalo  in  the  "happy  hunting  grounds'^ 
across  the  river. 

Our  buffalo  hunt  had  broken  into  our  day  so  much 
that  we  had  to  camp  on  Salt  creek  a  few  miles  east  of 
Belknap,  which  place  we  reached  about  noon  the  next 
day.  Quite  a  village  had  existed  here  before  the  war, 
but  at  the  time  of  our  arrival  only  a  few  families  lived 
in  the  entire  county,  and  primeval  solitude  reigned.  I 
made  on  this  trip  several  acquaintances,  one  of  which 
was  the  "  tarantula "  and  the  other  the  "  sand-burr.'^ 
The  former  "  critter"  is  so  well  known  now  that  it  needs 
no  description,  but  he  was  a  curio,sity  to  me  then.  I 
am  inclined  to  think  the  stories  of  the  fatal  nature  of 
Ms  bite  are  greatly  exaggerated.     He  is  a  huge  spider, 

3* 


66  FIVE    YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

but  nothing-  like  as  venom ons,  in  proportion  to  size,  as 
many  of  the  smaller  varieties  that  abound  here.  The 
^'sand-burr"  is  found  in  connection  with  various  kinds 
of  grass  and  weeds ;  is  like  a  miniature  chestnut  burr, 
attaches  itself  to  your  clothes,  g-ets  under  them,  and 
travels  over  your  person  like  a  thing  of  life,  its  sharp 
*'  stickers "  penetrating  your  clothing  in  an  annoying 
manner. 

The  few  natives  living  at  or  near  Belknap  gazed  at 
our  command  with  astonishment,  particularly  the  chil- 
dren. The  grown  persons  had  resided  there  before  the 
war,  and  had  seen  no  soldiers  since  the  old  garrison 
marched  out  in  1861 ;  none  of  them,  I  think,  had  par- 
ticipated in  the  rebellion,  except  as  "rangers"  in 
frontier  service. 

I  took  up  my  quarters  in  the  old  commissary  build- 
ing, a  rock  structure,  originally  well  adapted  to  its 
uses,  but  now  dilapidated  and  forlorn.  My  buffalo  calf 
I  tied  in  the  cellar,  and  looked  forward  to  raising  and 
civilizing  him,  but  notwithstanding  my  care  and  good 
treatment  of  him,  he  was  ungrateful  enough  to  break 
loose  and  run  off  to  his  native  wilds,  and  I  saw  him  no 
more. 

Ahrberg  (of  happy  memory)  accompanied  us  to  this 
place,  and,  having  been  a  soldier  here  in  1855,  enter- 
tained us  with  some  fearful  stories  of  his  exploits  in 
those  early  days,  there  being  no  one  competent  to  con- 
trndict  him,  DeForrest's  command  having  gone  to 
P>nffalo  Springs. 

Fort  Belknap  is  situated  on  the  left  bank  of  the 
Brazos,  on  a  high  bluff,  about  half  a  mile  from  the  river, 
which  at  this  place  sweeps  around  the  west  and  south, 
making  almost  a  right  angle,  in  the  apex  of  which  the 
fort  is  located.     It  was  laid  out  and  built  by  the  Fifth 


FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  67 

Infantry  in  1855,  and  was  designed  for  a  foui-conipany 
infantry  i)ost.  The  buildings  were  all  of  stone,  and  very 
substantially  finished,  but  it  having  been  abandoned  at 
the  outbreak  of  the  rebellion  and  not  occupied  since  ex- 
cept by  rangers  during  the  war,  at  the  time  I  first  saw  it, 
it  was  dilapidated  and  ruinous.  The  commissary  and 
forage  house  were  in  a  tolerable  state  of  preservation, 
but  the  quarters  and  hospital  were  roofless  and  most 
of  the  wood  work  had  been  removed.  The  village 
adjacent  to  the  fort  had  been  a  station  of  the  overland 
mail  route,  and  when  it  was  occupied  by  settlers  and 
the  fort  filled  with  troops  I  have  no  doubt  it  Avas,  as  I 
was  informed  it  had  been,  the  prettiest  frontier  post  in 
Texas,  but  now  desolation  reigned  supreme.  Sand, 
sand  everywhere ;  dead  buffalo  lying  on  the  parade 
ground ;  a  few  ancient  rats  and  bats  looked  on  us  with 
an  evil  eye  for  disturbing  their  repose,  and  my  first 
night's  rest  in  the  old  commissary  was  broken  by  visions 
of  old  infantry  sentinels  stalking  ghost-like  on  their 
•  beats,  and  the  wind  howling  through  the  broken  roof. 

The  object  of  occupying  Belknap  at  this  time  was 
with  a  view  to  rebuilding  it  as  a  permanent  military 
post,  and  my  special  duty  was  to  prepare  a  map  of  the 
place  and  its  surroundings,  and  plans  of  all  the  build- 
ings, accompanied  by  sketches  of  their  condition,  in 
order  to  convey  to  headquarters  as  complete  an  idea 
of  the  situation  as  was  possible  with  the  means  at  hand. 
My  only  instruments  were  a  pocket  compass  and  a  tape 
line,  but  my  report  was  regarded  as  a  satisfactory  one, 
and  was  comi)limented  by  the  inspecting  officer,  on  it3 
completion. 

In  about  two  weeks  I  succeeded  in  getting  up 
my  report  and  submitted  it  to  Colonel  Starr,  who 
had  by  this  time  arrived  and  assumed  command, 
Jacksboro  having  been  finally  abandoned  except  by  a 


68  FIVE    YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

small  detail  witli  some  extra  horses,  whose  duty  it  was 
to  carry  the  mail  from  Weatherford  to  Jacksboro,  and 
there  distribute  it  for  Buffalo  Springs  and  Belknap, 
special  details  being  sent  from  those  points  to  Jacks- 
boro to  meet  it  weekly. 


FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  69 


CHAPTER  X. 


ON  THE  BRAZOS — THE  COLONEL'S  ORDERLY — ANALYSIS 
EXTRAORDINARY  —  VERY      SALT      WATER  —  TEXAS 

OOAL THE     CYCLONE — THE    ATMOSPHERE — TEXAS 

RIVERS — A  FISHING  EXCURSION. 

In  making  our  report  to  the  Chief  Quartermaster  of 
the  Department  it  was  necessary  to  convey  an  accurate 
idea  of  the  adequacy  and  character  of  the  water  supply, 
that  being  a  most  important  item  in  the  practicability 
of  any  pohit  for  military  as  well  as  domestic  purposes. 
The  water  of  the  Brazos  was  brackisli  and  alkalnie,  and 
and  although  relished  by  the  animals,  was  unfit  for  use 
by  the  troops,  and  the  springs  were  few  in  number  and 
at  this  time  very  low  ;  in  fact,  we  had  to  haul  the  water 
for  drinking  and  cooking  purposes  from  a  distance  of 
several  miles.     I  was  accordingly  directed  to  await  an 
analysis  of  the  river  water,  a])out  to  be  made  by  Dr. 
Bacon,  the  surgeon,  and  the  Colonel,  before  closing  my 
report.     In  a  day  or  two  the  Quartermaster  came  into 
the  office  and  said :  "  Well,  you  can  state  in  your  report 
that  the  doctor  finds  that  the  Brazos  water  contains 
one   ounce   of   salt  to  each    quart."     I    said:    ''Why, 
Major,  that  is  preposterous,  and  there  will  be  a  laugh 
over  it  at  headquarters."     He  replied :  "  I  think  so,  but 
the  Colonel  and  the  doctor  are  supposed  to  be  author- 
ity, so  just  put  it  in  that  way." 


70  FIVE   YEARS    A    CAVALRYMAN. 

At  this  time  tlie  Colonel  liad  as  his  orderly  an  old 
Prussian  soldier  named  Stroo}),  a  grim,  stiff  old  veteran 
with  whom  it  was  as  absurd  to  associate  the  idea  of  a 
joke  of  any  kind  as  it  would  have  been  with  "  Old 
Paddy  "  himself.  Learning  that  Stroop  had  been  con- 
nected with  the  analyzing  of  the  water,  I  got  him  to 
one  side  and  asked  him  about  it,  and  with  a  grave  and 
mysterious  air  he  took  me  out  behind  the  camp,  and 
under  a  promise  fi^om  me  of  profound  secrecy  he  told 
me  how  the  experiment  was  performed  and  the  won- 
derful result  arrived  at. 

It  appeared  that  the  Colonel  caused  Stroop  to  take 
a  clean  bucket  and  proceed  to  the  river  and  obtain  one 
gallon  of  the  water,  place  the  same  in  a  large  shallow 
pan  on  the  fire,  with  instructions  to  boil  it  slowly  until 
it  had  evaporated  to  one-half  the  quantity,  the  process 
to  be  closely  observed  and  progress  to  be  reported 
when  the  desired  result  was  obtained.  Overcome  by 
the  heat  of  the  sweltering  sun  and  fire  combined,  Stroop 
fell  asleep  and  woke  not  until  aroused  by  the  voice  of 
the  Colonel,  shouting:  "Orderly!  is  that  done  yet^^ 
He  awoke,  but  lo !  the  water  had  nearly  all  boiled 
away ;  he  was  at  his  wit's  end,  and  fully  appreciating 
the  reception  he  would  meet  with  for  his  unfaithfulness, 
he  seized  a  handful  of  salt,  thrcAv  it  into  the  pan,  and 
quickly  adding  about  as  much  water  as  there  should 
have  been,  reported  that  the  task  was  accomjylished. 
The  Colonel  and  doctor  drained  off  the  water,  collected 
and  weighed  the  salt,  and  thus  arrived  at  the  extra- 
ordinary result  of  "  one  ounce  of  salt  to  one  quart  of 
water."  The  story  was  too  good ;  I  told  the  Quarter- 
master, of  course  he  told  the  other  officers,  and  it  got 
into  the  "Army  and  Isavy  Journal,"  omitting  names. 

The  water  of  the  Brazos,  and  most  of  the  other  large 
streams  in  isTorthwest  Texas,  is  strongly  impregnated 


FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  71 

witli  bituineii,  or  alkaline  matter,  due  no  doubt  to  the 
vast  dei)Osit  of  ^■yi)8uin,  extending;-  from  the  Kio  Grande 
in  a  northeasterly  direction  for  several  hundred  miles. 
While  stationed  here  one  of  the  i)henomena  peculiar  to 
the  Brazos  occurred,  known  to  the  natives  as  the  "  red 
rise,"  the  water  taking  on  a  reddish  tinge,  which  dyed 
clothing  a  pinkish  color  and  which  seemed  to  be  i)er- 
manent,  and  was  perhaps  owing  to  the  clay  format'on  of 
the  banks  of  the  upper  river. 

Learning  from  the  old  settlers  that  considerable  de- 
posits of  coal  existed  nearby,  I  took  with  me  a  couple 
of  men  and  dug  out  several  wagon-loads,  which  proved 
to  be  well  adapted  for  the  blacksmith's  use  and  resem- 
bled very  mucli  the  semi -anthracite  of  the  Broad 
Top  region  in  central  Pennsylvania.  Fine  limestone 
abounded,  and  we  made  a  kiln  of  excellent  bme  a 
couple  of  miles  below  the  post.  Even  at  this  early 
day,  and  before  any  attention  had  been  given  the 
matter,  I  was  impressed  with  the  many  indications  of 
vast  mineral  wealth  abounding  in  this  part  of  Texas. 

The  purity  of  the  atmosphere  was  a  daily  delight  to 
me,  and  the  long  distances  at  which  objects  were  visible 
to  the  naked  eye,  standhig  out  clear  and  distinct  against 
the  horizon,  was  astonishing.  At  a  mile  or  two  a  little 
bush,  an  animal,  or  a  tree,  stood  out  clear  and  well 
defined,  and  which  could  not  have  been  distinguished 
at  all  at  such  a  distance  further  north.  The  brilliant 
moonlight  exceeded  anything  seen  by  me  before,  and  I 
feel  certain  a  far  greater  number  of  stars  are  A-isible 
from  the  same  cause — the  dryness  and  purity  of  the 
atmosphere.  In  an  ordinarily  dry  season  the  dead 
animal,  instead  of  putrefying  and  offending  the  sense 
of  smell,  dries  up  in  a  short  time,  and  fi*esh  meat  hung 
up  in  the  open  air  far  enough  above  the  earth  to  escape 
flies  and  bugs  will  keep  until  it  dries  up,  but  never  spoils. 


72  FIVE    YEAKS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

At  the  close  of  a  sultry  day  in  May  I  had  my  first 
experience  of  a  cyclone — a  "  harry-cane  "  they  called 
them  in  those  days — which  came  up  from  the  northwest 
just  about  sundown,  and  in  a  moment  j)rostrated  every 
tent,  blew  a  lot  of  the  camp  equipage  clear  down  into 
the  river,  and  stampeded  the  horse  herd  that  was  just 
being  driven  home  for  the  night.  It  seems  to  me  these 
electric  storms  are  of  more  frequent  occurrence  of  late 
years  than  formerly,  or  else  with  the  increasing  popu- 
lation and  increased  means  of  communication  we 
hear  more  of  them  than  we  used  to.  The  wind  blew 
about  half  the  old  roof  off  my  storeroom,  and  the  rain 
drenched  and  damaged  a  lot  of  stores  and  supplies,  all 
of  Avhich  brought  into  active  emploj^ment  the  "  affidavit 
man,^'  who  was  always  equal  to  the  emergency. 

Fine  fishing  was  had  in  the  Brazos,  and  as  one  of  the 
troops  present  owned  a  seine,  our  table  was  supplied 
with  cat,  buffalo  and  drum,  these  two  latter  varieties 
being  unknown  in  the  ]N^orth,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  the 
buffalo  fish  very  much  resembling  the  rock  fish  of 
Eastern  waters. 

The  large  streams  and  rivers  of  Northern  Texas  are 
all  more  or  less  alike  in  their  characteristics.  In  a  dry 
time  the  wide  river  bed  is  dry  sand  or  quicksand,  the 
tortuous  channel  in  its  midst  being  only  an  insignificant 
rivulet,  but  after  the  spring  rains,  or  when  swollen  by 
"  rises ''  in  their  tributaries,  they  become  formidable 
streams,  often  impassable  for  weeks.  At  other  times 
they  can  be  crossed  "  dry  shod,"  or  at  least  forded 
with  safety.  This  description  applies  to  every  river  in 
the  Union  southwest  of  the  Missouri — the  Arkansas, 
the  Platte,  the  Eed  river,  the  Brazos ;  all  are  very  much 
alike,  great  wide  beds,  nasty  yellow  and  brackish 
water  5  they  cannot  be  utilized  for  either  navigation, 


FIVE    YEARS    A    CAVALRYMAN.  73 

irrigating-  purposes  or  for  drinking-;  at  times  hardly 
worthy  of  tlie  name  of  river,  again,  as  stated,  formida- 
ble in  the  extreme. 

Some  leisure  days  happening  after  the  survey  and 
report  on  the  post  was  completed,  1  organized  a  tishing 
party  from  among  the  employes  in  my  dei)artment,  and, 
accompanied  by  the  hospital  steward,  and  Ahrberg, 
without  whom  the  party  would  liave  been  incomplete, 
bright  and  era-ly  one  morning  we  started  on  a  seining 
excursion  to  Elm  creek,  some  ten  miles  distant.  An 
old  ambulance,  from  which  the  top  had  been  removed 
and  some  seats  fitted  to,  made  a  good  open  wagon ; 
a  portion  of  the  party  rode  horseback.  AVe  followed 
the  old  Cam})  Cooper  road  for  a  couple  of  miles,  and 
then  struck  across  the  prairie  to  our  right,  tramping 
down  the  myriads  of  beautiful  flowers  that  decked  the 
grass,  and  inhaling  the  i)ure  air,  a  perfect  elixir,  and 
seemingly  containing  a  greater  proportion  of  oxygen 
than  in  colder  climes.  The  solitude  was  primeval,  and 
we  saw  no  indication  that  the  foot  of  man  had  ever 
intruded  on  those  wilds  until  we  struck  Elm  creek,  a 
stream  of  considerable  volume  that  emi)ties  into  the 
Brazos  about  six  or  seven  miles  above  Belknap,  up 
which  we  proceeded  two  miles  from  its  mouth  and 
made  our  camp  near  an  old  well,  the  curb  of  which 
was  crumbled  in  and  the  well  itself  almost  choked  up. 
Attaching  a  canteen  to  a  lariat  I  got  a  draught  of 
splendid  water,  and  as  I  drank  it  I  wondered  what  had 
become  of  the  hardy  p'oneer  who  had  dug  it  here  in 
the  wilderness.  A  few  rotting  logs  of  his  cabin  lay 
scattered  nearby,  the  ruined  chimney  had  long  been 
cold,  and  years  had  evidently  passed  since  it  had  been 
a  human  habitation.  But  once  it  had  been  a  homey  had 
perchance  resounded  with  the  vo^'ces  of  happy  children, 
and  here  the  wife  may  have  waited  the  coming  of  her 


74  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

husband.  Had  the  savage  in  some  unexpected  hour 
devastated  the  hearthstone  and  murdered  the  occu- 
pants, or  had  he,  pioneer-like,  always  on  the  move^ 
gone  further  west ! 

'  'Every  house  where  man  has  lived  and  died  is  haunted, ' ' 

and  so  perhaps  their  spirits  hovered  near,  but  we 
didn't  see  any  of  those  sperits.  We  proceeded  to  fish, 
and  with  fine  success,  for  at  each  drawing  of  the  seine 
we  caught  as  many  as  we  could  haul  out,  among  them 
some  catiish  of  suri)assing  size  and  weight,  to  say 
nothing  of  their  strength.  By  noon  we  had  not  only 
filled  the  two  barrels  I  had  brought  with  me,  but  had 
the  bottom  of  the  wagon  covered,  so  we  called  a  halt 
and  had  our  dinner. 

The  variety  of  fish  in  these  streams  is  small,  but 
many  specimens  are  often  of  wonderful  size.  On  this 
occasion  we  caught  one  yellow  catfish  that  weighed 
forty-six  pounds  and  measured  over  four  feet  in  length, 
the  three  largest,  including  this  one,  weighed  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty-one  pounds.  This  would  be  regarded 
as  a  tough  story  Xorth,  but  those  familiar  with  this 
region  in  those  days  are  aware  that  even  much  larger 
fish  were  frequently  caught  in  these  waters.  Just 
think  of  it !  forty-pound  fish  caught  in  a  little  creek 
five  hundred  miles  from  the  sea! 

We  found  one  very  troublesome  customer  in  the 
seine  every  time  we  drew  it,  known  as  the  gar  feox 
hdme)^  "alligator-gar"  he  is  called  locally;  has  a  long- 
snout,  breaks  the  seine,  and  is  so  totally  unfit  for  food 
that  the  Tonkawas  wouldn't  even  eat  it.  They 
shoAved  us  the  i)ro])er  thing  to  do  with  one  when 
caught,  Avhich  was  to  stick  its  long  nose  down  in  the 
wet  sand  and  break  it  off,  which  treatment  incapaci- 
tated them  for  further  mischief.  Turtle  are  very 
abundant  in  these  waters,  of  several  varieties,  one  of 


FIVE    YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  75 

which  greatly  rot^ieiiibles  d"aiiioiid-back  teiTapiii  (farapm 
ill  tlie  veiiiaciilar).  Tliey  are  a  great  nuisance  to  the 
fisherman,  :,eein  to  i)ossess  '^voracious  ap])etites,  and 
have  the  faculty  of  obtaining  tlie  bait  often  without 
being  theniselveo  caught. 

About  sunr.et  we  arrived  in  cam]),  and  weighing  our 
spoils  found  we  had  over  five  hundred  pounds  of  fish, 
besides  turtles.  One  of  our  buffalo  fish  weighed 
twenty-e'ght  }>ounds  and  was  a  beauty  to  look  at. 
Surely,  I  thought,  nature  has  been  prodigal  here ;  be- 
sides the  glorious  climate  and  balmy  a^r,  and  gorgeous 
skies,  she  ha:  produced  whopping  catfish  also. 


76  FIVE  YEARS  A  CAVALRYMAN. 


CHAPTER  XI. 


THE  CENTIPEDE — THE  SCORPION — THE  COLONEL  AND 
THE  sutler's  clerk — THE  TEUTON — "  PUT  HIM  TO 
PULLING  WEEDS  " — GOOD-BYE  TO  BELKNAP — JACKS- 
BORO  AGAIN. 

The  approach  of  hot  weather  brought  into  notice 
some  of  the  unpleasant  phenomena  of  the  region  as 
well  a3  the  admirable  ones  go  often  noticed.  One  of 
the  distinguished  visitorG  to  my  old  commissary  build- 
ing was  the  centipede,  and  while  it  is  not  worth  whUe 
to  give  a  scientific  account  of  him  (any  one  who  has 
an  encyclopi>)dia  can  find  such  a  description  for  him- 
self), a  poi)ular  one  belongs  here,  for  this  insect,  bug, 
reptile,  varmint,  or  whatever  name  you  may  give  him, 
is  one  of  the  wickedest  looking  and  most  repulsive 
cieatures  to  me  that  I  have  met.  When  full  grown  it 
is  from  six  to  nine  inches  in  length,  about  the  thickncGS 
of  the  little  finger,  a  rich  dark-green  color  on  the  back 
and  a  brilliant  yellow  bellj .  He  has  forty  legs,  each 
is  terminated  by  a  fang,  claw,  or  sharp  bony  point, 
from  which  he  ejects,  as  his  means  of  attack  or  of  de- 
fense, a  yellow  liquid,  said  to  be  virulentlj^  poisonous. 
Its  mode  of  attack  (or  of  defense,  for  I  am  inclined  to 
think  that  like  the  majority  of  venomous  reptiles  it  is 
rarely  aggressive)  is  to  crawl  on  its  victim  and  striking- 
its  claws  into  the  flesh,  exude  the  poison  at  the  same 


FIVE   YEARS   A   CAVALRYMAN.  77 

time,  and  inflict  what  is  said  to  be  a  frightful  sore, 
difficult  to  heal,  and  the  effects  of  which  remain  for 
years.  Their  favorite  resorts  are  old  lo^'  buildings, 
stone  walls,  or  some  secluded  i)lace  generally,  but 
frequently  they  are  caught  on  the  i)rairie.  When  cap- 
tured and  confined  in  a  glass  jar  they  will  in  their  rage 
strike  their  claws  against  its  sides,  and  drops  of  the 
yellow  poison  can  be  seen  trickling  down. 

The  "  scorpion,"  or  "  stinging  lizard,"  abounds,  and 
is  the  one  "  critter"  of  any  size  (except  the  spider)  that 
will  go  out  of  his  way  for  the  express  purpose  of  sting- 
ing you.  He  does  it  with  his  tail,  and  the  neatness  and 
dispatch  with  which  he  will  do  it  is  worth  seeing  at 
the  expense  of  being  stung.  He  flops  his  tail  forward 
over  his  back,  and  the  effect  of  the  sting  seems  slightly 
electric,  and  for  a  short  time  is  about  as  painful  as  a 
bee  sthig,  but  a  few  drops  of  ammonia  or  a  little  soda 
soon  dissipates  the  soreness. 

The  heat  of  approaching  summer  produced  myriads 
of  annoying  insects,  many  of  them  new  to  me,  but  I 
will  leave  the  future  entomologist  of  Texas  to  classify 
and  describe  them,  and  as  for  the  tarantula  and  centi- 
pede, the  next  generation  of  those  living  in  the  settle- 
ments of  Texas  will  never  see  one ;  they  are  disappear- 
ing and  rapidly  becoming  a  curiosity  and  a  rarity.  The 
hog  and  the  chicken  are  their  natural  enemies,  and 
gobble  them  up  with  impunity. 

Owing  to  anticipated  incursions  of  hostile  Indians 
then  roaming  in  small  bands  all  over  the  Brazos  and 
Wichita  country,  and  also  to  prevent  the  men  from 
leaving  camp  and  idling  away  their  time,  a  line  of  guards 
had  been  placed  around  the  camp  by  "  Old  Paddy," 
and  very  stringent  orders  given  for  no  one  to  "  pass  or 
repass"  without  permission.     I  had  a  permanent  pasa 


78  FIVE   YEAES   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

given  me,  owing  to  my  various  duties  requiring  me  to 
go  in  and  out  at  all  hours  in  performance  of  the  same. 
One  pleasant  Sunday  afternoon  about  this  time  I  took 
three  or  four  men  and  the  seine,  went  down  to  the 
river,  and  in  a  short  time  had  a  nice  lot  of  hsh.  On 
my  return  to  camp  I  selected  a  fine  one,  weighing  four 
or  live  pounds,  and  sent  it  to  the  Colonel,  who  was 
apparently  much  pleased  and  thanked  me  for  it,  and 
exhibited  it  to  the  other  officers.  I  went  to  my  quar- 
ters thinking  I  had  done  a  good  thing  for  myself,  and 
anticipating  further  immunity  to  some  extent  from  his, 
at  times,  indiscriminate  wrath.  A  day  or  two  afterward 
old  Stroop,  the  orderly,  came  to  me,  saying  the  Colonel 
wanted  me  right  away.  Arriving  at  his  tent  I  found 
him  in  a  rage,  and  was  greeted  with :  "  Who  gave  you 
permission  to  go  fishing  last  Sunday,  sir?"  I  replied: 
^'  Xo  one.  I  have  a  pass,  and  go  and  come  at  all 
times."  "  Very  true,  sir ;  but  your  pass  does  not  apply 
to  going  fishing!  Don't  let  it  occur  again,  sir!"  I 
made  a  proper  "  about  face,"  and  returned  to  my  quar- 
ters a  sadder  and  a  wiser  man.  I  supi)ose  the  fish  had 
disagreed  with  the  old  fellow,  or  else  he  had  concluded 
that  Sunday  fishing  was ''conduct  to  the  prejudice  of 
good  order  and  military  discipline,"  this  being  the  com-  ♦ 
prehensive  term  for  all  unclassified  shortcominggin  the 
army.  During  the  windstorm  referred  to  in  a  previous 
chapter  the  Colonel's  desk,  papers  and  all  were  blowu 
down  the  bluff  into  the  i-iver,  and  his  valuables  scat- 
tered around.  The  next  day,  having  occasion  to  report 
to  him,  I  found  him  in  a  towering  rage,  trying  in  vain 
to  patch  and  mend  a  dilapidated  map  of  Texas  that  had 
become  badly  torn  in  the  storm.  Having  but  one  arm, 
he  succeeded  badly  in  getting  it  to  lie  smooth,  and  at 
each  motion  of  the  flatiron  he  tore  it  worse.  Being^ 
])retty  handy  about  such  things,  I  offered  to  take  it  ta 


FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALBYMAN.  79 

my  office  and  rei)air  it,  which  I  did,  and  in  a  few  hours 
returned  it  to  him  nicely  mended.  lie  Avas  much 
pleased  and  thanked  me,  but  followiuj>-  me  to  the  door, 
shouted  after  me:  "Sergeant!  please  observe,  sir,  that 
were  it  not  for  the  loss  of  my  infernal  arm  1  could  have 
done  this  as  well  as  you,  sir!"  Notwithstanding  all  of 
which,  he  i)088e88ed  a  lot  of  traits  that  endeared  him 
to  the  men,  for  they  knew  he  was  every  inch  a  soldier, 
and  a  just  and  honest  man  as  well. 

The  regimental  sutler  or  post-trader,  1).  A.  Wray,  of 
Pittsburg,  Pennsylvania,  had  branch  stores  at  all  i)0sts 
occupied  by  com])anies  of  the  regiment,  and  soon  after 
our  arrival  at  Belknap  opened  a  large  stock  of  goods. 
His  clerk,  not  knowing  "  Paddy's  peculiarities,"  thought 
to  make  himself  "  solid  "  with  the  old  man,  and  sent  a 
nice  lot  of  sundries,  beer,  cigars,  choice  canned  goods, 
and  so  on,  to  him,  with  his  compliments.  The  Colonel 
was  out  at  the  time,  but  on  his  return  found  his  table 
covered  with  the  aforementioned  delicacies.  "  Orderly ! 
where  did  these  things  come  from  f  "  "  The  sutler  sent 
them,  sir."  "Ah!  go  tell  him  to  come  here  a  moment." 
The  "fresh"  clerk  came  stepping  briskly  along,  feeling* 
very  much,  as  I  had  done  when  I  took  him  the  Ush, 
that  he  had  done  a  good  thing  for  himself.  "  Take 
these  things  away,  sir  !"  thundered  the  Colonel.  "You 
cannot  afford  to  make  i)re8ent8  to  officers  without  rob- 
bing my  men,  and  if  I  hear  of  any  more  of  this  Pll  drum 
your  shop  out  of  camj),  sir ! "  The  sutler's  clerk  was 
also  "  wiser  and  sadder."  In  fact  an  increase  of  wis- 
dom and  sadness  was  pretty  sure  to  follow  an  intimate 
acquaintance  with  the  old  man. 

Our  doctor  was  a  i)hilanthropist  (in  his  own  mind), 
and  Sunday  mornings  sent  tracts  and  religious  reading- 
matter  around  to  the  First  Sergeants  for  distribution 
to  the  men,  and    his  amiable  countenance  and  mild 


80  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

manner  often  led  the  misguided  and  trustful  soldier  to 
think  that  he  could  "play  off"  at  sick-call  and  get  ex- 
cused from  duty.*  But  the  alacrity  and  promptness 
with  which  the  doctor  prescribed  the  most  nauseous 
medicines  for  such  chaps,  and  marked  them  "  duty," 
soon  dispelled  their  faith  in  an  unctious  and  benignant 
countenance.  The  fellow  who  imagined  he  could  fool 
an  old  army  surgeon  was  speedily  undeceived,  for  the 
army  surgeon  becomes  wiser  than  any  one,  owing  to 
the  kind  of  material  with  which  he  has  to  contend. 

ToAvard  the  end  of  June,  Major  Whitesides  (the 
Quartermaster)  was  ordered  to  Austin,  and  another 
Lieutenant  ai)pointed  in  his  place,  whereujion  I  applied 
to  be  sent  to  my  company  at  Buffalo  Springs,  which 
was  granted. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  beauty  of  the  post  of  Fort 
Belknap  at  the  time  it  was  first  built,  and  in  connection 
with  the  work  incident  to  its  construction  was  told  an 
anecdote  of  the  commanding  officer.  Colonel  Marcy. 
It  seems  he  had  a  i)oor  opinion  of  the  Teutonic  race, 
and  on  one  of  the  first  days  of  work  on  the  fort  had 
the  men  drawn  up  in  line  in  order  that  they  might  be 
assigned  to  various  kinds  of  emi)loymeiit  for  which 
they  were  fitted.  The  First  Sergeant  would  call  the 
I'oll,  and  when  a  man  answered  to  his  name  the  Colonel 
would  say :  "  What  countryman  are  you,  sir  ?  "  An- 
swer— "An  Irishman,  sir."  "  Give  him  a  pick  or  shovel, 
Sergeant."  "What  are  you,  sir"?"  "An  American, 
«ir."  "  Give  him  an  axe.  Sergeant."  "  Whit  are  you, 
sir  !  "  "A  German,  sir."  "A  German  I  Put  him  to  pull- 
ing weeds.  Sergeant ;  it's  all  the fellow  is  good 

for." 

♦This  same  doctor  died  a  hero's  death — going:  ontside  of  aiid  beyond  the 
line  of  his  duty  during  the  yellow  fever  epidemic  in  Galveston^in  the  fall  of 
this  year— 1867— and  gave  up  his  life  to  aid  the  suffering  and  dying,  when  local 
physicians  and  nurses  were  unable  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  sick. 


FIVE   YEARS    A    OAVALRYMAN.  81 

On  the  day  I  left  for  Jacksboro,  en  route  to  IJuffalo 
Springs,  several  nou-cominjssloned  officers  started  for 
Austin  as  witnesses  on  a  general  courtniartial,  and  our 
routes  were  identical  as  far  as  Jac^ksboro.  We  laid  in 
a  liberal  supply  of  rations,  both  solid  and  liquid,  and 
had  a  pleasant  trip,  finding  on  our  arrival  at  Jacksboro 
that  the  ])lace  was  about  dismantled.  The  barracks 
and  stables,  so  cleverly  and  painfully  built  by  the 
troops  during  the  i)ast  winter,  had  been  torn  down  l)y 
the  nathes  and  the  material  carried  off,  and  some  of 
them  had  been  burned.  But  few  citizens  remained  in 
the  village,  and  altogether  it  was  about  as  dilapidated 
a  looking  place  as  T  ever  saw. 

Unusually  heavy  rains  had  fallen  during  June  and  the 
West  Fork  bottom  was  flooded,  so  that  I  had  to  remain 
in  Jacksboro  several  days  before  proceeding  on  my 
way.  A  mail  detail  for  carrying  the  mail  to  and  from 
Weatherford  were  the  only  troops  in  the  place,  and 
they  occupied  an  old  log  house  that  stood,  I  think,  just 
about  where  Mrs.  Chase's  house  now  stands.  All  of 
the  stables,  picket  houses,  corrals  and  officers'  huts 
that  had  been  built  were  gone,  and  for  the  time  being 
Jacksboro  had  relapsed  into  its  pristine  or  ante  helium 
condition.  All  of  this,  however,  was  but  a  temporary 
relapse  ;  in  the  near  future,  and  for  years  thereafter,  it 
was  destined  to  be  a  "  red-hot "  town,  the  distributing 
point  for  about  all  the  money  current  in  Xorthwest 
Texas,  the  Mecca  of  all  the  tough  characters  to  whom 
military  posts  and  mining  camps  i)resent  a-ttractions 
found  nowhere  else,  all  of  which  these  "  true  chronicles '' 
will  in  due  time  relate. 


82  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 


CHAPTER  XII. 


SENTIMENTAL  HUMBUG — HARD-TACK — "FORTY  CEN- 
TURIES ARE  LOOKINGr  ON  YOU  TO-DAY " — HIGH 
FREIGHT — ON  TO  BUFFALO  SPRINGS — THE  OLDEST 
INHABITANT  AND  HIS  FOIBLES — THE  FIRST  SER- 
GEANT— MONOTONY. 

How  many  beautiful  sentiments  have  been  written 
and  sung,  setting  fortii  and  idealizing  the  warm  and 
brotherly  feeling  one  soldier  has  for  another!  How 
one  would  ask  his  comrade  to  "  take  him  home  to  die," 
"  kiss  him  for  his  mother,"  and  all  the  rest  of  it !  There 
is  none  of  this  kind  of  foolishness  among  the  "  regulars." 
Each  man  loses  his  identity  and  becomes  part  of  a, 
machine,  as  it  were,  and  therein,  in  fact,  lies  the  supe- 
riority of  regiilar  troops.  I  was  induced  to  moralize 
over  the  morale  (or  want  of  it)  on  the  part  of  my  com- 
rades the  morning  after  I  had  got  into  Jacksboro  on 
this  occasion,  from  the  fact  that  having  had  the  "  run 
of"  the  commissary  department  I  had  supplied  myself 
with  a  goodly  lot  of  "  gTub,"  including  some  delicacies, 
and  on  waking  up  found  that  the  balance  of  the  party, 
who  were  en  route  to  Austin,  had  taken  an  early  start^ 
and  had  taken  all  of  my  sui)plies  as  well,  leaving  uie  a 
gTeasy  old  haversack  and  a  battered  tin  cup  with  which 
to  reach  Buffalo  Springs.  I  found  that  the  river  was. 
up  and  that  I  would  have  to  remain  in  Jacksboro  some 


FIVE    YEARS    A    CAVALRYMAN.  83 

•days,  so  T  negotiated  a  siiiall  loan  from  a  (ntizen  and 
re])aired  to  the  hotel  (?)  northeast  of  the  public  square, 
and  had  a  square  meal,  so  called,  but  it  discounted  the 
solitary  hard-tack  the  boys  had  been  good  enough  to 
leave  in  my  haverpack. 

Juct  at  this  i)oint  in  my  notes  I  am  constrained  to 
make  a  few  remarks  about  hard-tack  as  an  ailicle  of 
food  in  time  of  peace  and  within  the  limits  of  civiliza- 
tion. AVhen  the  war  broke  out  stores  and  rations  for 
our  suddenly  organized  army  had  to  be  gathered  where 
and  how  they  could,  and  all  the  old  pilot  bread  obtain- 
able was  ])urchased  by  the  government  in  Eastern 
{^eaports  for  the  army.  Pilot  bread  was  (or  is^  for  all  I 
knoNv)  about  like  hard-tack,  but  is  round,  about  six 
inches  in  diameter,  and  I  remember  the  sold'ers  in 
18()1  at  Leesburg,  Virginia,  making  a  little  wagon  out 
of  a  cracker  box,  i)utt'ng  four  pilot  crackers  on  it  for 
wheels,  tilling  it  with  rotten  pork,  and  forming  a  pro- 
oession  i)roceeded  with  it  to  the  unfortunate  commis- 
sary, who  was  in  nowise  responsible  for  its  condition. 
At  the  close  of  the  war  millions  of  pounds  of  hard 
bread  rema'ned  on  hand  at  all  the  great  depots,  and  our 
l)aternal  and  beneticent  government  conceived  the  idea 
of  utilizing  it  by  ship])ing  it  to  Texas  and  other  piu'ts 
of  the  South  to  feed  the  freedmen  and  soldiers,  there 
be'ng  no  branches  of  the  "  society  for  the  prevention 
of  cruelty  to  animals"  in  existence  in  these  ])arts. 
During  the  war  I  heard  a  volunteer  state  that  he  had 
seen  i)ilot  bread  marked  A.  I).  1812,  but  I  doubted  it, 
until  r  heard  another  one  remark  that  Ms  regiment 
had  had  hard-tack  issued  to  them  distinctly  dated 
30  B.  C,  when  I  was  constrained  to  give  some  credence 
to  the  former.  After  i)artaking  of  some  "  tack  "  irsued 
out  at  Jacksboro  in  1867,  the  marks  on  which  no  one 
but  an  Egyptologist  could  decipher,  and  which  evidently 


84  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

dited  from  the  Pharaohs,  I  removed  my  forage  cap 
reverently  and  exclaimed,  as  I  saw  the  ancient  weevil 
in  it:  "Forty  centuries  are  looking  down  on  your 
achievements  to-day !  "  Seriously  speaking,  hard-tack 
"beats  nothing,"  and  that-s  all,  and  should  never  be 
used  when  any  other  kind  of  bread  can  possibly  be 
had.  It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that,  at  the  time  I  write 
of,  the  government  hauled  all  its  stores  from  Indianola 
on  ox-carts  and  Mexican  wagons,  and  that  the  contract 
price  for  freight  in  those  days  was  about  eleven  cents 
a  pound  in  coin  (thirty  per  cent,  added  to  make  up  for 
the  difference  in  coin  and  greenback)  to  Jacksboro. 
This  made  the  cost  of  flour  enormous,  and  even  a  gov- 
ernment like  ours  may  be  excused  for  economizing  at 
times,  although  later  on,  when  I  relate  the  cost  of 
lumber  used  in  the  buildings  at  Fort  Richardson,  and 
give  the  detailed  expenditure  for  certain  wooden  pad- 
dles and  babv  carts  constructed  for  the  officers  bv  the 
Quartermaster's  Department,  the  thing  of  economizing 
in  the  food  supi)ly  for  the  soldier  will  not  bear  investi- 
gating. 

The  river  having  finally  run  down,  I  at  last  started 
with  the  mail  detail  for  Buffalo  Springs,  about  twenty- 
eight  miles  distant  by  the  old  road,  which  was  the  one 
generally  used  at  that  time.  The  whole  West  Fork 
bottom  had  been  inundated,  and  part  of  the  country 
was  still  under  water.  In  places  the  water  must  have 
been  tlu-ee  miles  wide,  so  unusually  heavj^  and  con- 
tinued had  been  the  rainfall.  In  passing  through  the 
heavily  timbered  bottom,  the  broiling  June  sun,  the 
steam  arising  from  the  wet  ground  and  rank  vegeta- 
tion, together  with  the  clouds  of  mosquitos,  made  the 
day's  journey  an  exceedingly  tiresome  one,  as  we  had 
a  couple  of  wagons  along,  and  were  forced  to  wait  on 
them.     The  mosquitos  were  so  bad  that  we  had  to  cut 


FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  85' 

brnsli  to  keep  them  away  fioiii  our  faces,  and  as  for  the 
poor  animals,  they  were  bitten  all  over  so  as  to  look- 
as  if  they  had  the  hives;  they  even  disturbed  the 
equanimity  of  the  "Philosopher,"  otherwise  pjoofto 
all  disturbing-  causes. 

About  sundown  we  came  in  sight  of  Buffalo  Springs, 
and  found  the  two  companies  stationed  there  encamped 
in  a  grove  near  the  springs  from  which  the  place  takes 
its  name.  This  place  had  been  selected  as  the  site  for 
a  four-company  military  post.  Congress  had  made  an 
appropriation  therefor,  and  at  the  time  of  my  arrival 
about  one  hundred  civilian  employes,  mostly  quarry- 
men  and  stone-masons,  were  on  the  spot  and  work  had 
commenced. 

The  nearest  settlement  was  at  Victoria  Peak,  some 
twenty  miles  northeast,  on  the  road  to  Sherman,  and 
Clay  county,  aside  from  our  camp,  did  not  contain  a 
settler  or  a  family  at  the  time.  After  the  June  rains 
ceased,  and  they  had  been  this  year  very  heavy,  as 
stated,  a  protracted  drouth  set  in,  said  by  that  abnor- 
mal and  monumental  liar,  the  "  oldest  citizen,"  to  have 
been  unprecedented ;  at  any  rate,  no  rain,  except  one 
slight  thunder  shower,  fell  during  the  remainder  of  the 
year  until  December,  long  before  Avhich  time  the  unciiit- 
ability  of  the  place,  owing  to  the  inadequate  supply  of 
water,  for  a  military  post  had  been  determined  on,  and 
its  abandonment  ordered. 

The  "oldest  inhabitant!"  What  memories  come  up 
in  my  mind  as  I  recall  this  ubi(iuitous  person !  It  has 
come  to  be  regarded  as  a  term  synonymous  with  that 
of  an  altitudinous  and  unapproachable  liar.  No  matter 
what  occurs,  either  in  nature  or  the  works  of  man,  the 
"  oldest  inhabitant "  is  on  hand  to  draw  unfavorable 
comparisons  between  the  present  and  the  past.  The 
most  backward  spring,  the  earliest  frost,  the  heaviest 


86  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

storm,  the  longest  drouth,  the  biggest  crop,  the  grass- 
hoi)per,  the  Indian,  tlie  chinch-biig — all  are  mentioned 
only  to  be  brought  into  disrepute  by  the  o.  i.  with  his 
storiet^  of  other  days,  all  of  which  tend  to  bring  the 
l)rer-.ent  into  insignificance  as  compared  with  the  past. 
But  I  am  remiiuled  just  here  that  I  am  getting  to  be  an 
^' old  settler  "  myself,  and  must  be  careful  not  to  fall 
into  too  roseate  and  retrospective  visions  of  the  good 
old  days  gone  by. 

In  an  hour  or  two  after  my  arrival  the  Captain  of 
my  comi)r.ny  sent  for  me  and  informed  me  that  he  had 
concluded  to  promote  me  to  be  First  Sergeant  of  my 
comi)any,  which  position  I  hesitated  to  accept,  as  most 
of  the  other  non-commissioned  officers  were  old  and 
experienced  men,  but  he  insisted  on  it,  and  on  Sunday 
morning  I  assumed  the  duties.  With  along  and  varied 
exi)erience  I  consider  this  the  most  satisfactory  and 
rer:.])ectable  position  an  enlisted  man  can  aspire  to  in 
the  a  'my.  In  the  regular  army  the  First  Sergeant  is 
virtually  in  command  of  the  company,  his  authority  far 
exceeds  that  of  a  Captain  of  volunteers,  and  if  he  but 
conduct  himself  as  he  should,  he  can  command  the 
respect  of  both  officers  and  men,  and  lives  as  comfort- 
ably as  he  wishes  to.  He  messes  by  himself,  has  his 
horse  cared  for  by  the  men,  has  his  own  quarters,  and, 
in  fact,  his  duties  are  responsible  and  pleasant,  and  it 
only  depends  on  himself  and  his  capabilities  as  to  his 
comfort  and  success. 

At  last  I  had  settled  down  to  real  soldiering,  my  first 
year's  servic^e  was  nearly  gone,  and  so  far  my  duties 
had  been  clerical  and  everything  but  routine,  but  the 
monotony  was  soon  to  be  broken  in  a  rude  and  startling 
manner,  such  as  to  add  both  interest  and  excitement 
to  the  slowly  passing  days. 


FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  87 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


BED  TAPE — THE  COMPANY  CLERK — THE  SICK  BOOK — - 
billy's  SOWL — GONE  TO  MEET  NOAH — ^THE  TREED 
STEWARD — THE  MAMMOTH  MULE-EAR — BOB  FAWLS 
— "as  large  as  a  doe" — THE  GLORIOUS  FOURTH  — 
CIVILIAN  EMPLOYES. 

There  is  an  expression  or  phrase,  or  a  (5oiui)ouiid 
word,  that  is  more  misunderstood  and  has  had  more 
foolish  talk  about  it  than  any  other  in  the  language^ 
that,  if  properly  understood,  is  the  key  to  the  entire 
system  of  routine,  not  only  in  the  army,  but  in  every 
other  department  of  the  government.  I  refer  to  the 
expression  "red-tape,"  and  am  free  to  say,  that  without 
the  intricate  and  accurate  methods  known  as  "  red-tape," 
or,  in  other  words,  of  checking  and  re-checking  which 
runs  through  the  whole  system,  from  the  accounts  of  a 
company  Quartermaster  Sergeant  in  the  army,  or  from 
the  i)apers  of  a  little  X  roads  postmaster,  to  the  final 
books  of  one  of  the  Auditors  of  the  Treasury,  this  gov- 
ernment would  be  stolen  out  and  sent  into  bankrui)tcy 
inside  of  ninety  days.  A  long  experience  in  both  the 
military  and  civil  service  of  "  Uncle  Sam,"  comi)els  me 
to  state  that  the  finest  clerical  talent  in  this  broad 
country  is  found  in  the  various  bureaus  of  the  war  and 
other  depai'tments  of  the  government. 

It  took  me  but  &  few  days   to  make  the   personal 


88  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

acquaintance  of  my  company,  and  but  a  short  time  to 
"take  in"  iheJT personnel  as  well. 

A  company  of  eighty  men  is  an  epitome  of  the  world, 
and  com])rises  representatives  of  every  class.  There 
was  the  honest,  plodding  fellow,  ready  for  every  duly; 
the  "  old  soldier,"  looking  with  contempt  on  everything 
and  everybody  except  the  ante  helium  officers  and  men ; 
the  quiet  young  fellows,  just  from  the  volunteer  service 
and  full  of  jiranko  and  fun,  regarding  their  enlistment 
as  a  joke;  the  "Dinart  Aleck,"  always  ready  to  shirk 
every  duty,  and  the  "  malingerer,"  always  on  hand  for 
the  hospital,  and  prompt  at  morning  sick-call. 

My  predecessor  was  an  illiterate  man  named  Stokes, 
and  being  a  poor  penman  had  had  a  soldier  detailed  as 
company  clerk,  one  Eyan  by  name.  The  "  company 
clerk  "  is  one  of  the  characters  of  the  service  who 
deserves  more  than  a  passing  word.  He  usually  was 
a  fellow  addicted  to  the  flowing  bowl,  not  ambitious  for 
military  duty  nor  for  promotion ;  frequently  bad  been 
a  non-commissioned  officer  who  had  been  reduced  to 
the  ranks,  and,  not  fit  for  much  else,  was  made  useful 
in  the  "  orderly  room."  Lever  or  Lover  would  have 
immortalized  Ryan,  could  those  inimitable  portrayers 
of  the  peculiarities  of  their  countrymen  have  known 
him.  He  had  been  educated  for  the  priesthood,  but 
had  "fallen  from  grace;"  had  read  everything  and 
remembered  it  all,  and  was  full  of  genuine  Irish  wit. 
One  of  the  institutions  of  the  company  is  the  "sick- 
book."  On  it  are  entered  the  names  of  all  those  who 
wish  to  attend  "surgeon's  call"  in  the  morning,  being 
really  sick;  on  it  also  are  the  chronic  " dead  b ?ats," 
and  by  a  i)erusal  of  its  pages  a  fair  history  of  each 
man  can  be  in  a  manner  traced,  or  at  least  if  any  man 
has  lost  much  time  from  dutj^,  by  reason  of  either  real 
or  feigned  sickness,  the  sick-book  tells  the  story. 


FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  89 

Eyaii,  ill  his  capacity  of  company  clerk,  liad  done  all 
the  writing  for  some  time,  and  op])osite  to  tJie  names 
of  some  of  the  "  characters  "  who  had  appeared  oftenest 
and  who  had  some  salient  points  about  them,  he  had 
perpetrated  a  lot  of  orig^inal  remarks  in  both  poetry 
and  prose. 

Old  "  Shields,"  an  old  soldier  from  "  away  back,"  a 
constitutional  drunkard,  was  perpetually  at  sick-call, 
sometimes  succeeding  in  "  working "  the  doctor,  still 
oftener  marked  "  duty."  One  day  Shields  indulged  to 
such  an  extent  as  to  bring  on  the  "  snakes,"  was  ad- 
mitted to  the  hospital,  and  for  days  his  life  was  despaired 
of.  During  the  time  he  was  so  low,  and  anticipating 
his  early  demise,  Eyan  had  written  : 

"When  Billy's  sowl,  on  angels'  wings, 

Essayed  to  reach  the  skies, 
The  clivil  and  whiskey  held  it  down. 

But  the  Lord  said,  'Let  it  rise! 
I  cannot  lay  embargo  on 

Pure  spirits  in  disguise . '  " 

Another  fellow  who  was  perpetually  drawing  unfavor- 
able ^omparisons  between  the  past  and  present,  to  the 
disparagement  of  the  present,  deserted  one  pay-day 
from  the  hospital,  upon  which  Eyan  wrote  opposite  his 
name :  "  Gone  to  look  up  Xoah  and  draw  conclusions 
from  antedeluvian  times." 

Before  my  time,  a  soldier  by  name  of  Paddy  Clarke 
had  been  killed  by  another  one  named  Furrey,  which 
Eyan  had  commemorated  thus  : 

'  'Paddy  Clarke  has  gone  to  his  rest, 
He  'shook'  the  world  in  a  hurry. 
And  came  to  his  end  in  the  had  wild  west 
In  a  fracas  with  one  Jim  Furrey . ' ' 

The  camp  life  of  this  place  soon  became  exceedingly 
monotonous,  as  there  were  but  two  companies  of  troops, 
besides  the  civilian  Quartermaster  employes,  at  the 
post.     Eeading  matter  was  scarce,  and  every  old  news- 


90  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

])aj)er  and  novel  were  read  and  re-read  and  loaned  about 
until  worn  out. 

There  roamed  around  the  prairie  during- this  summer 
an  old  bull  of  ferocious  asi)ect,  who  was  the  terror  of 
the  camp  dogs,  but  had  never  attacked  nor  molested 
any  person,  and  was  not  considered  dangerous.  The 
hospital  steAvard  at  this  time  was  an  amiable  and  agree- 
able young-  fellow,  now  living  in  Colorado,  and  return- 
ing home  from  a  solitary  walk  on  the  i)rairie  one  evening- 
near  dusk,  the  bull  spied  him.  Having  no  weapon,  and 
flight  being  impracticable,  not  to  say  dang-erous,  the 
steward  made  a  rush  for  and  succeeded  in  getting-  into 
a  small  and  solitary  tree  which  fortunately  was  at  hand, 
and  gained  a  limb  about  ten  feet  from  the  ground  just 
in  time  to  escape  his  adversary ,  who  was  close  after 
him,  and  who  proceeded  to  "  camp "  right  under  the 
tree.  The  steward  was  in  an  uni)leasant  predicament ; 
he  was  just  out  of  reach  of  the  enemy,  the  limb  was 
small  and  shaky,  night  was  at  hand,  no  one  within 
sound  of  his  voice,  with  which  he  gave  forth  lusty  yells 
at  inteivals,  but  late  in  the  night  "  Doc"  Cooper  came 
along  with  some  hands  (he  was  the  beef  contractor  for 
the  command)  and  rescued  the  steward  and  routed  the 
besieging  force.  The  steward  never  heard  the  end  of 
his  ridiculous  adventure  as  long  as  he  was  in  the 
service,  and  often  had  his  attention  called  to  the  "third 
battle  of  Bull  Run,"  as  the  boys  had  named  it. 

Ryan's  time  expired  early  in  July,  and  having  a  man 
in  the  company  who  wrote  a  good  hand,  but  was  totally 
unfit  for  any  other  duty,  I  detailed  him  as  my  clerk,  and 
made  him  useful  in  many  ways.  Bob  Fa  wis  was  his 
name ;  he  was  a  recruit,  and  had  only  been  a  short 
time  in  America  when  he  enlisted,  and  ever;\ihing-  was 
new  to  him.  Bob  had  not  up  to  this  time  seen  a  mule- 
ear  rabbit,  but  the  boys  had  given  him  fabulous  accounts 


FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  91 

of  tliein  and  their  hu^e  size,  in  corroboration  of  which 
one  of  the  men  poked  his  head  in  the  tent  one  day  and 
told  Bob  to  look  out  the  ba(;k  end  of  it  and  he 
would  see  a  "  mule-ear,  although  not  a  very  large  one." 
In  a  ravine  a  few  rods  distant  was  a  small  donkey  feed- 
ing that  belonged  to  a  freighter,  his  body  hidden,  but 
his  great  ears  fully  visible  above  the  weeds.     Bob's 

eyes  "  bugged  out,"  as  he  exclaimed :  "  My !  if  he 

isn't  the  size  of  a  doe ! " 

The  "Glorious  Fourth "  (1867)  was  duly  celebrated 
by  the  boys,  horse-racing,  foot-racing,  etc.,  serving  to 
pass  the  day  pleasantly,  and  as  up  to  this  time  there  had 
been  no  sutler  nor  any  whiskey  in  camp,  of  course  there 
was  no  trouble  of  any  kind.  In  the  army,  as  in  civil 
life,  whiskey  causes  about  ninety  per  cent,  of  all  the 
trouble,  both  among  officers  and  men,  but  perhaps  its 
effects  are  more  marked  among  the  soldiers,  owing  to 
the  fact  that  long  intervals  often  occur  when  from  some 
cause  or  other  they  can't  procure  it;  then  when  they 
can  get  it  they  make  up  for  lost  time  with  a  vengeance. 

The  big  force  of  civilian  employes  (about  one  hun- 
dred of  them)  at  work  on  the  proposed  buildings  were 
a  reminder  to  me,  in  the  manner  of  their  work ,  of  the 
large  numbers  of  men  I  had  seen  in  days  gone  by  at 
the  Philadelphia  navy  yard  on  the  eve  of  an  election. 
They  did  absolutely  nothing ;  just  put  in  their  time  and 
were  in  each  other's  way.  If  I  were  to  state  in  figures 
the  exact,  or  even  approximate,  cost  of  a  bunk  which 
the  Quartermaster's  men  made  for  Turner,  or  to  tell 
how  many  days  it  took  a  foreman,  an  assistant  foreman 
and  eleven  carpenters  to  make  an  office  table,  it  would 
raise  a  doubt  as  to  my  veracity,  but  the  records  at  Wash- 
ington no  doubt  show  how  much  money  was  fooled  away 
at  Buffalo  Springs  and  Jacksboro,  although  the  detailed 
statements  will  not  show  the  cost  of  the  bunk  and  table. 


92  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

Tlie  next  chapter  will  give  an  account  of  an  occur- 
rence that  broke  the  monotony  of  camp  life  for  a  few 
(lays,  and  which  in  its  results  led  to  important  move- 
ments on  the  part  of  the  government  for  the  protection 
of  the  frontier,  principal  among  which  were  the  steps 
that  led  to  the  building  of  one  of  the  finest  frontier  posts 
in  the  Union,  Fort  Sill,  Indian  Territory. 


FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  93 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


TEAMSTER  KILLED — THE  SCOUT  STARTS — INDIANS! — 
BESIEGED — THE  INDIAN  YELL — TWO  NIGHTS  IN 
THE  CORRAL — THE  BLUNDERBUSS  —  "  DINNA  YE 
HEAR  IT?"  —  THE  MAJOR  ''MARCHES  HOME"  — 
REINFORCEMENTS. 

Up  to  this  time  no  Indians  had  been  heard  of  in  the 
Ticinity  for  many  months,  and  small  details  of  the  sol- 
diers were  consequently  sent  back  and  forth  through 
the  country  without  apprehending  any  danger  from 
them.  A  detail  consisting  of  a  Sergeant,  a  Corporal 
and  twelve  men,  with  four  government  mule  teams 
driven  by  civilians,  had  been  sent  early  in  July  to  the 
West  Fork  of  the  Trinity  to  cut  timber,  at  a  point 
about  eighteen  miles  south  of  the  post,  below  the  old 
crossing,  and  where  it  was  intended  to  set  up  the  saw 
mill  and  build  a  bridge  across  the  river. 

On  Saturday  afternoon,  July  20th,  just  as  stable  call 
was  sounding,  the  whole  party  was  seen  coming  in  over 
the  prairie,  and  as  they  were  not  exi)ected  to  return  for 
some  time,  it  was  at  once  surmised  that  something  had 
happened.  On  tlieir  arrival  it  appeared  that  on  the 
evening  before,  just  as  the  men  had  ceased  work  for 
the  day,  and  were  lying  around  cam])  in  all  the  abandon 
of  the  bivouac,  some  of  them  washing  at  the  spring, 
some    cooking   the   supper,  and   others   attending  to 


94  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

various  caiiip  duties,  without  any  idea  of  danger,  a 
noise  was  heard,  described  by  the  Sergeant  as  "  resem- 
bling the  rush  of  a  stampeded  herd."  One  of  the 
teamsters  was  herding  the  twenty-four  mules  belonging 
to  the  teams  in  an  open,  grassy  space  some  hundred 
yards  distant  fi'om  the  camp  lire,  and  before  the  soldiers 
were  fully  aroused  to  the  situation  and  could  jump  for 
their  carbines,  a  party  of  Indians  swept  through  the 
timber,  hurled  the  teamster,  who  was  herding  the 
mules,  from  his  saddle  with  a  spear,  and  with  a  whoop 
and  a  yell  were  off  like  the  wind,  driving  the  mules 
before  them.  As  the  party  of  Indians  were  estimated 
at  about  two  hundred  and  fifty  or  three  hundred,  and 
the  soldiers,  with  the  exception  of  the  Sergeant,  were 
dismounted,  they  could  do  nothing  but  fire  one  volley 
after  the  Indians,  proceed  to  bury  the  dead  teamster, — 
the  spear  had  gone  clear  through  him,— pack  up  their 
effects,  and  come  into  camp  to  report,  which  they  did, 
as  stated. 

Major  Hutchins,  commanding  the  post,  at  once 
ordered  every  man  to  saddle  up  who  was  in  possession 
of  equipments,  and  in  less  than  an  hour  seventy  men 
were  ready  to  start.  The  lamentable  lack  of  equip- 
ments, spoken  of  in  a  previous  chapter,  still  existed, 
but  each  of  the  two  troops  present  had  over  sixty  ser- 
viceable horses.  Accompanied  by  Doc  Cooi)er  (then 
acting  as  guide  as  well  as  beef  contractor),  the  com- 
mand, consisting  of  three  ofticers  and  seventy  men, 
marched  out  in  pursuit  of  the  Indians  about  sundown, 
proceeding  toward  Jacksboro,  as  from  the  direction 
taken  by  the  Indians  it  was  supposed  they  had  gone 
down  into  the  settlements. 

The  force  left  in  camp  was  very  small,  only  about 
sixty  men,  and  the  civilian  employes,  numbering  per- 
haps about  one  hundred,  unarmed,  and  camping  about 


FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  95 

lialf  a  mile  iiortli  of  tlie  soldiers'  (jiiarters.  The  only 
officer  left  in  canip  was  a  young  Lieutenant  belonging 
to  "  E  "  coini)any  ;  the  First  Sergeant  of  that  comi)any 
had  gone  on  the  scout,  and  there  being  no  officer  in 
my  company,  left  me  in  command.  I  at  once  issued 
tAventy-one  rounds  of  ammunition  to  each  man,  and 
placed  two  lookouts  some  three  hundred  yards  distant 
from  the  quarters  to  the  southeast  and  southwest  as 
some  precaution  against  surprise,  for  I  had  but  little 
doubt  the  Indians  would  come  back  and  i)ay  us  a  visit 
as  they  went  out  honu>  to  their  villages.  All  of  the 
other  guards  were  doubled,  all  the  stray  and  extra 
animals  placed  in  the  corral,  and  the  night  passed  with- 
out any  alarm.  Sunday,  the  !^lst,  passed  (quietly,  and 
although  many  an  anxious  look  was  cast  toward  Jacks- 
boro,  nothing  occurred  during  the  first  part  of  the  day, 
and  we  began  to  feel  as  if  the  Major  and  his  command 
would  head  them  off,  and  they  would  pass  out  of  the 
eettlements  to  the  east  of  us  and  posti)one  tlieir  visit 
for  the  present. 

"Ketreat"  roll-call  had  sounded,  and  I  had  ju,3t 
stepped  in  front  of  my  company  to  call  the  roll,  when 
the  trumpeter  of  the  Adjutant's  office,  who  had  just 
"  sounded  off,"  without  apparently  taking  breath,  blew 
"to  arms,"  and  at  the  same  time  I  heard  Turner,  from 
his  office,  shouting,  "  Indians  !  Indians  !  "  I  was  feeing 
the  south  as  I  stood  in  front  of  the  compan^^,  and  look- 
ing southeasterly  toward  the  Jacksboro  road,  there 
they  came,  sure  enough,  filing  along  in  regular  order, 
their  forms  standing  out  clear  against  the  horizon,  and 
apparently  driving  a  large  herd  with  them.  They 
moved  toward  the  west  and  had  encircled  our  camp 
on  two  sides,  the  west  and  south  ;  the  north  side  of 
the  camp  was  timbered  and  a  deep  ravine  protected  the 
east  side. 


90  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

I  Ghould  right  here  state,  however,  that  about  a  half 
hour  before  the  Indians  had  made  their  appearance 
some  citizens  had  come  into  camp  and  rei)orted  the 
Indians  as  being  within  a  few  miles  and  approaching 
the  cam]),  but  the  young  Lieutenant,  instead  of  protiting 
by  the  information,  took  their  arms  from  them,  and  put 
them  in  the  guard-house !  I  never  understood  this 
singular  action  on  his  part,  but  it  came  nea^  costing  us 
all  our  liar  I 

Most  of  my  company  had  gone  with  the  Major, 
leaving  only  about  a  dozen  or  fifteen  for  duty,  and  these 
I  ordered  to  get  up  all  the  arms  and  ammunition  and 
run  to  the  corral  (which  was  situated  in  the  midst  of 
the  camp),  "A"  company  south  of  it,  "  E  "  company  to 
the  north,  and  fall  in  on  the  south  side  at  intervals  of 
three  paces  apart.  I  placed  the  spare  ammunition  in 
charge  of  a  man  who  had  no  carbine,  with  orders  to 
issue  it  out  as  needed.  By  this  time  the  alarm  had 
become  general,  and  the  other  company  had  formed  on 
the  right  of  mine,  thus  covering  two  sides  of  the  corral 
that  were  most  exposed.  The  officers'  families  and  the 
laundresses  we  ]>laced  in  the  log  forage  houses  inside 
the  corral,  and  all  hands  awaited  the  rush  which  it 
seemed  was  inevitable,  as  there  were  Indians  enough 
to  have  made  one  charge  and  cleaned  us  all  up,  par- 
ticularly in  view  of  the  fact  that  only  about  half  the 
soldiers  were  armed,  and  none  of  the  civilians,  except 
maybe  their  personal  weapons.  The  Indians  had  now 
formed  in  an  unbroken  line,  extending  for  nearly  half  a 
mile  in  a  half  circle  around  us,  and  about  four  hundred 
yards  distant.  They  had  driven  their  herd  south  of 
them,  or  behind  them,  and  at  the  least  calculation  the 
party  numbered  all  of  three  hundred  and  fifty.  Our 
whole  force  was  twenty-seven  men  armed  with  Spencer 
carbines,  with  about  thirty-five  rounds  of  ammunition 


FIVE   YEARS   A   CAVALRYMAN.  97 

apiece.  We  ordered  the  men  to  hold  their  fire  until 
the  Indians  charged  and  were  close  ni)on  us,  and  not 
to  waste  a  single  cartridge  until  it  would  be  necessary 
and  do  some  good.  Old  Turner  and  Appleby,  however, 
had  organized  themselves  into  a  separate  company, 
as  skirmishers,  crept  out  through  the  ravine  within 
shooting  distance,  and  tired  two  shots,  one  of  which 
emptied  an  Indian  saddle  and  i)recipitated  the  conflict. 
A  yell  (one  must  have  heard  this  yell  to  api)reciate  it) 
went  up  along  their  whole  line,  and  a  volley  was  tired 
by  them,  which,  owing  to  the  distance,  fell  short. 

At  the  moment  the  war-whoop  was  sounded,  it 
seemed  certain  that  in  a  few  minutes  they  would  be  on 
us,  and 

'  'The  stoutest  held  his  breath  for  awhile," 

but  just  then  the  Quartermaster's  employes,  who  were 
encamped  nearly  half  a  mile  north  of  our  quarters, 
having  heard  the  alarm,  came  running  down  in  a  crowd 
to  the  corral,  and  they  proved  to  be  our  salvation,  for 
of  course  the  Indians  supposed  them  to  be  armed,  and 
seeing  such  a  large  number  of  them  they  hesitated  to 
attack  us,  and,  after  apparently  holding  a  council  of 
war,  they  deliberately  began  to  dismount  and  proceeded 
to  camp  about  half  a  mile  from  us. 

We  now  began  to  breathe  freer,  but  as  we  felt  cer- 
tain they  would  attack  us  in  the  night,  we  proceeded 
to  put  the  corral  in  as  good  a  state  as  possible.  The 
horses  and  mules,  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  in 
number,  we  placed  in  the  centre,  and  then  got  all  the 
wagons  and  placed  them  end  for  end  around  the  out- 
side of  the  fence.  Several  barrels  of  water  were 
brought  inside,  as  well  as  a  quantity  of  rations,  for  we 
apprehended  that  the  Indians  would  keep  us  in  a  state 
of  siege  until  the  command  returned,  which  would 
perhaps  be  some  days,  as  it  was  evident  they  had 

4* 


98  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

missed  tlie  trail.  It  had  now  become  quite  dark,  and 
as  the  moon,  which  was  two  or  three  days  past  full, 
would  not  rise  until  ten  or  eleven  o'clock,  the  inter- 
vening hours  of  darkness  would  be  the  most  critical  of 
the  whole  night.  All  the  sabres  were  distributed 
among  the  unarmed  soldiers  and  civilians,  and  having 
barricaded  the  corral  fence  as  well  as  possible,  thirty 
sentinels  were  posted  at  intervals  around  the  inside  at 
all  available  points,  and  two  posted  on  the  roof  of  the 
corn-crib,  which  commanded  a  wide  view  of  the  sur- 
rounding prairie.  The  moon  rose  soon  after  ten,  and 
all  appeared  quiet  in  the  direction  of  the  enemy,  and 
with  the  increased  light  our  confidence  also  rose,  for 
in  our  then  condition  we  could  probably  have  resisted 
an  attack  successfully. 

As  I  made  my  rounds  to  visit  the  sentries,  about 
eleven  o'clock,  I  noticed  Mike  Keher,  a  noble  little 
Irishman,  on  guard  at  the  corral  gate,  armed  with  a 
huge  double-barreled  shot  gun.  Mike  had  been  sick 
in  quarters  for  some  time,  and  his  carbine  had  been 
issued  to  some  other  soldier,  but  he  had  no  notion  of 
being  defenseless  and  had  procured  the  weapon  in 
question.  As  I  approached  him  he  remarked:  "Sar- 
gent, if  I  let  this  off,"  tapping  his  gun  as  he  spoke,  "  I 
wouldn't  advise  ye  to  be  too  near,  for  I  know  she'll 
bust,  but  I'll  make  a  scatteration  among  thim  red  div]ls 
whin  I  shoot  her ! "  Taking  the  ramrod,  he  showed 
me  that  it  i)rojected  about  nine  or  ten  inches  out  of  the 
barrels,  and  informed  me  he  had  put  forty  buckshot  in 
each  barrel !  ^like  surely  would  have  blazed  away  had 
the  Indians  attacked  us,  which  fortunately  for  him  and 
them  they  did  not  do.  Ryan,  the  old  company  clerk, 
was  usually  considered  as  a  non-combatant,  but  as  no 
true  Irishman  ever  yet  avoided  the  chance  of  a  tight, 
he  had  armed  himself,  and  between  times  indulged  in 


FIV]E   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  99 

his  witticisms,  wit  being  as  much  "the  ruling  passion, 
strong  in  death,"  of  an  Irishman,  as  love  or  war.  One 
soldier,  as  he  paced  his  short  beat,  softly  whistled  to 
himself,  to  the  annoyance  of  Eyan,  who,  quoting 
"  Micky  Free,"  told  him  to  husli  up,  saying : 

"  'Now,  I  like  Garry owen 
Whin  I  hear  it  at  home ; 
But  its  not  half  so  swate 
Whin  one's  goin'  to  be  kilt.'  " 

This  was  a  terrible  night  for  poor  Bob  Fawls ;  he 
had  become  perfectly  demoralized  from  the  effects  of 
fear,  and  it  was  found  necessary  to  take  his  arms  from 
him  and  turn  them  over  to  another  man,  or  in  his  ex- 
cited state  he  would  undoubtedly  have  hurt  some  one. 
The  night  passed  away  without  any  attack  being  made, 
but  the  Indians  remained  within  sight  all  day  Monday, 
evidently  expecting  us  to  turn  out  the  herd,  which  of 
course  we  did  not  do,  but  carried  water  to  the  corral 
for  them.  Xight  again  came  on,  and  no  sign  of  the 
Major  and  his  party  returning,  it  was  apparent  he  had 
missed  the  trail  and  gone  in  some  other  direction,  for 
if  he  had  struck  the  trail  at  West  Fork,  where  they 
killed  the  teamster,  he  could  have  followed  them  into 
the  settlements  or  intercepted  them  on  their  Avay  out. 

Monday  night  was  passed  the  same  as  the  i)revious 
one,  the  Indians  camped  all  around  us,  but  evidently 
afraid  to  attack  us,  and  waiting  to  see  if  we  would  not 
be  compelled  to  turn  out  our  herd,  in  which  case  they 
would  have  gobbled  them. 

Tuesday,  about  noon,  the  Indians  gave  signs  of  leav- 
ing, and  soon  after  our  men  came  in  sight,  and  it  was 
surely  a  relief  to  us  to  see  them.  We  felt,  I  suppose, 
like  the  garrison  at  Lucknow  did  when  they  heard  the 
"  slogan  of  the  Highlanders." 

It  appeared  that  when  the  Major  got  to  West  Fork, 
instead  of  going  toward  the  settlements,  he  went  west 


100  FIVE    YEARS    A    CAVALRYMAN. 

to  Belknap,  played  poker  with  the  officers  there  for 
two  (lays,  and  then  inarched  back.  The  Indians  went 
down  AVest  Fork,  "  cleaned  up  "  all  the  western  edge 
of  AVise  county,  rode  deliberately  back,  besieged  us 
for  two  days,  and  went  on  their  way  rejoicing. 

This  Avas  the  last  big  party  of  Indians  who  extended 
theh^  raid  so  far  into  the  interior  of  this  part  of  Texas. 
In  the  fall  of  18(37  a  camp  was  established  on  Cache 
creek  in  the  Territory,  about  one  hundred  miles  north 
of  Jacksboro,  and  subsequently  the  splendid  post  of 
Fort  SUl  was  built,  which  effectually  and  forever  put 
an  end  to  Indian  raids  so  far  east. 

This  "scout"  of  the  Major's  cannot,  however,  be 
taken  as  a  sampJe  of  the  regular  army  "  Indian  lighting," 
for  the  (jeneral  record  of  the  frontier  troops  is  one  of 
unexami)led  bravery  and  hardship,  and  the  heroism 
which  has  settled  up  the  vast  domain  between  the 
Missouri  and  the  Pacific  is  such  as  our  little  army  may 
well  be  proud  of.  Of  course  there  were  now  and  then 
officers  (we  had  one  afterward  in  the  "  Sixth  ")  who 
enthusiastically  followed  a  trail  until  it  became  too 
warm,  and  then  went  into  camj),  but  they  were  excep- 
tions, and  always  were  "bounced"  when  their  "pecu- 
liarities" became  known  at  headquarters. 

One  good  effect  this  "  scare-up  "  had  was  the  sup- 
l)lying  our  command  soon  after  with  full  and  complete 
ecjuipments;  for  if  our  commanding  officer  was  a  poor 
"tracer,"  he  was  an  expert  at  a  "requisition,"  and  the 
one  he  made  for  arms  and  equipments  after  this,  accom- 
l)anied,  as  it  was,  by  a  glowing  account  of  what  he 
could  have  done,  had  his  command  been  equipped,  was 
to  the  i)oint.  Our  garrison  was  soon  after  this  increased 
to  four  comi)anies — "  C  "  and  "  I)  "  ha\ing  been  ordered 
to  join  us — and  their  arrival  served  to  break  the  mo- 
notony and  furnish  some  new  faces  and  acquaintances. 


FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  101 


CHAPTER  XY. 


IRREGULAR  MAILS — ''ONLY  A  SOLDIER" — NO  ROMANCE 
ABOUT  THE  "regulars" — AN  ELECTRIC  FREAK- 
DROUTH — THE  STOCKADE — THE  SPADE  AND  THE 
PICK  AGAIN — WEAK  HUMAN  NATURE  EXEMPLIFIED. 

Our  mails  during'  this  siiininer  were  carried  from 
Weatlierford  to  eJaeksboro,  and  there  distributed  to 
Belknap  and  Buffalo  Springs.  We  sent  to  Jacksboro 
once  a  week,  but  it  was  a  very  unsatisfactory  mode  of 
getting  our  ma-1 ;  constant  losses  of  letters  occurred, 
and  it  was  an  accident,  seemingly,  if  our  newsi)aper8 
ever  dkl  reach  us.  Illustrated  papers,  especially,  off'ered 
attractions  to  the  ])ostmasterG  and  headciuarters  clerks 
that  they  could  not  resist,  and  they  seldom  came  to 
hand. 

One  of  the  detail,  bringing  the  mail  from  Jacksboro, 
was  drowned  about  August  1st,  in  West  Fork,  and  his 
body  was  not  recovered  for  some  days,  when  it  was 
buried  on  the  spot.  The  loss  of  one  soldier,  however, 
more  or  less,  is  not  of  much  importance  to  anybody,  as 
a  general  thing,  and  is  hardh'  worth  recording. 

In  time  of  war  the  death  of  the  soldier  is  surrounded 
by  a  certani  halo,  which  is  entirely  absent  in  tiat  of  the 
poor  "  regular "  who  departs  in  time  of  peace.  The 
former  dies  during  a  poi)ular  struggle,  his  death  is  com- 
memorated by  the  poet    and   historian,  sanitary   and 


102  FIVE   YEAKS    A    CAVALRYMAN. 

cbrlstiaii  commissions  afford  him  every  luxury  when  he 
is  sick,  and  the  hands  of  patriotic  women  smooth  his 
dying  pillow;  the  latter,  dying  equally  in  the  service  of 
his  country,  his  daily  life  a  constant  round  of  arduous 
duties,  his  end  is  marked  by  nothing  of  a  nature  to  rob 
death  of  its  terrors,  his  remains  are  followed  to  the 
grave  by  a  "  corporal's  guard,"  and  he  dies, 

"Unwept,  imhonoTed,  and  iTiisxing." 

The  violence  of  the  thunderstorms  that  visit  this 
latitude  is  often  very  great,  and  we  witnessed  one  of 
the  unaccountable  freaks  of  the  electric  lluid  during  a 
heavy  shower  that  came  up  one  afternoon.  The  sentry* 
on  post  "  number  one,"  in  front  of  the  guard-house, 
when  the  rain  came  up,  continued  to  walk  his  beat, 
without  putting  on  his  overcoat  or  "pohclio,"  and  not 
apprehending  much  danger,  as  there  were  no  trees 
within  some  distance,  keeping  his  carbine  at  a  "  carry  " 
as  he  paced  back  and  forth.  The  position  of  the 
weapon,  however,  probably  saved  his  life,  for  presently 
the  lightning,  which  Avas  very  vivid,  was  seen  to  strike 
him  to  the  ground,  and  he  was  thought  to  have  been 
killed  by  those  witnessing  it.  On  examination,  the  light- 
ning appeared  to  have  struck  the  muzzle  of  the  gun, 
about  two  inches  of  which  was  fused  into  a  shapeless 
mass,  as  if  a  stick  of  sealing-wax  had  been  subjected  to  a 
flame  ;  passed  down  the  barrel,  burning  off  the  hammer 
and  part  of  the  lock,  down  the  man's  leg,  and  through 
his  right  foot  into  the  ground.  The  sleeve  of  his  jacket 
was  split  down,  his  pants  torn,  and  two  little  holes 
burned  through  his  boot  and  foot,  as  if  red-hot  Avire 
had  been  run   through  them.      His  hand   was   badly 

*This  man,  Joe  Jaraieson,  was,  in  my  opinion,  the  linest  looking  soldier 
in  the  regiment,  lie  was  an  old  English  dragoon,  and  liad  belonged  to  the 
Eleventh  Hussars,  and  rode  as  one  of  the  famous  "Six  Hundred''  at 
Balaklava,  having  had  the  "Victoria  Cross"  conferred  upon  him  for  services 
in  the  Crimean  war. 


FIVE   YEARS    A    CAVALRYMAN.  103 

burned,  also  liis  foot,  and  he  was  stunned,  remaining 
un  onscious  for  hours,  but  was  in  a  few  days  fit  for  duty. 

The  carbine  is  now  in  tlie  military  museum  at  the 
city  of  Washington,  it  bein<>-  a  cui'iosity,  on  account  of 
the  way  in  which  the  muzzle  was  fused  off,  and,  further- 
more, the  cartridges,  of  which  there  was  one  in  the 
chamber  and  seven  in  the  magazine,  were  none  of  them 
exploded. 

As  the  summer  advanced,  T  was  agreeably  surprised 
at  the  delightful  temi)erature  which  prevailed,  for  I 
looked  for  almost  troi)ical  heat  in  this  latitude.  It  is 
true,  the  middle  of  the  day  was  very  hot,  but  tempered 
by  delightful  breezes  from  the  south,  and  the  nights 
were  go  cool  as  to  make  sleei)ing  a  luxury.  In  fact, 
after  all  my  j^ears  in  Texas,  in  wiiatever  else  it  may  fall 
short  in  its  ethnology,  its  climate  is  a  perpetual  delight, 
and  makes  uj)  for  many  other  features  which  are  partial 
or  complete  fa'lures,  and  as  regards  the  nights,  a  sultry 
one  is  very  unusual,  and  is  tlie  exception  that  i)roves 
the  rule.  There  is,  though,  one  feature  of  the  climate 
that  is  very  disagreeable — the  continued  storms  of 
wind  and  Band  that  sometimes  i)revaii  in  the  spring  and 
early  summer,  ])articularly  durhig  a  dry  spell.  They 
occas'onally  blow  for  days,  often  with  great  velocity, 
and  nearly  at  times  ap})roach  Mark  Twain's  description 
of  a  "  Washoe  zephyr.-' 

Soon  after  the  Indian  "  scare,"  recorded  in  the  last 
chapter,  we  commenced  building  a  stockade  around 
our  corral  in  order  to  have  a  more  secure  place  for 
defensive  operations  in  case  of  another  visit  from  the 
Indians.  It  was  two  hundred  by  two  hundred  and 
fifty  feet  in  size,  built  of  pickets  ten  feet  above  the 
gT0un<l,  placed  closely  side  by  side,  and  with  the  tops 
sharpened  to  a  point.  The  main  entrance  was  closed 
by  a  double  gate,  and  at  the  southeast  and  northeast 


104  FIVE    YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

corners  were  turnstiles,  affording  passage  for  the  troops 
as  tliey  marched  to  and  from  "  stables."  This  work  was 
rather  heavy,  but  when  completed  was  regarded  with 
much  satisfaction,  as  it  presented  a  very  defensible 
appearance  when  compared  with  the  rail  fence  which 
had  preceded  it.  The  springs  by  midsummer  began  to 
run  so  very  low  that  it  was  found  necessary  to  place 
sentinels  over  them  in  order  to  prevent  the  water  being 
wasted,  and  the  men  were  limited  to  one  quart  per 
day.  The  animals  were  sent  under  a  strong  guard  to 
West  Fork,  and  a  large  fatigue  partj  was  set  at  work 
to  build  a  dam  below  the  post  to  secure  a  supply  of 
surface  water  in  case  of  future  rains.  This  precaution, 
although  obviously  necessary  in  the  earlier  part  of  the 
season  when  the  creek  or  ravine  was  full  of  water,  had 
been  neglected,  and,  now  that  a  long  drouth  had  set  in, 
it  was  evident  that  unless  a  supply  of  water  could  be 
speedily  obtained  for  the  u?e  of  the  animals,  the  aban- 
donment of  the  place  in  the  near  future  would  be  a 
necessity. 

In  addition  to  the  detail  employed  on  the  dam,  and 
the  one  engaged  in  building  the  bridge  at  West  Fork, 
twenty  other  men  were  engaged  as  teamsters  in  the 
Quartermaster's  department,  and  most  of  the  remaining 
available  men  were  working  on  the  officers'  houses, 
building  new  ones,  or  repairing  those  already  built. 
Very  little  military  duty  was,  therefore,  ])erformed 
during  the  latter  part  of  the  summer,  except  stable  duty 
and  inspection.  In  fact,  it  had  pretty  nearly  dawned 
on  my  mind  by  this  time  that  the  frontier  troops  in  our 
army  were  simply  "armed  laborers,"  nothing  less, 
nothing  more. 

If  these  sketches  should  ever  meet  the  eye  of  some 
youth  who  burns  for  militar^^  glory  or  hankers  to  go 
west  and  lead  the  "  idle  and  lazy  life  of  a  soldier,"  I 


FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALKYMAN.  105 

Avonld  like  to  <>ive  him  a  "pointer,"  that  if  he  can  find 
some  soft  and  easy  job  working  on  a  railroad  for  ten 
hours  a  day  with  a  pick  and  shovel,  driving  a  scraper, 
or  pushing-  a  wheelbarrow,  he  had  better  embrace  that 
opening. 

Early  one  morning  a  tremendous  row  stirred  up  the 
camp,  it  having  been  discovered  that  the  log  room  used 
as  the  hosp'tal  storeroom  had  been  broken  into  and 
several  boxes  of  the  hospital  liquors  stolen  therefrom. 
The  Tfjuors  of  all  khids  furnished  the  medical  depart- 
ment of  the  army  are  very  fine,  all  packed  in  tlr"rty-two 
ounce  bottles,  and  one  dozen  bottles  packed  in  a  case. 
Suspicion  had  been  aroused  the  day  previous  by  the 
conduct  of  a  couple  of  men  in  my  company,  and,  as  no 
whiskey  could  be  obtained  at  the  post  in  any  legitimate 
way,  they  were  arrested,  but  failed  and  refused  to  con- 
fess, and  having  no  sufficient  grounds  for  detaining 
them  they  were  released.  A  watch  was  kei)t  for  some 
days,  when  one  of  the  colored  laundresses  at  the  post 
came  to  my  tent  to  show  me  a  bottle  of  the  hospital 
liquor  which  had  been  g'ven  her  l)y  one  of  the  parties. 
The  thieves  proved  to  be  a  non-commiss*oned  officer 
and  two  men  in  my  company,  who  were  promptly  dealt 
with  and  most  of  the  stolen  property  recovered. 

This  occurred  during  one  of  the  periods  of  "enforced 
total  abstinence  "  wh'ch  ])revailed  at  the  post  ("  local 
option  "  or  "  prohibition  "  hadn't  dawned  on  the  country 
then),  and  the  temptation  to  get  liquor  by  some  means, 
even  theft,  was  too  strong  for  soldiers  to  resist.  In 
fact,  I  often  saw  during  my  service  "  enforced"  abstni- 
ence  attempted,  but  am  of.  the  opinion,  as  1  look  back 
on  it  now,  that  Avhere  it  was  sold  with  restrictions  as  to 
quantities  sold,  and  a  certainty  of  punishment  for  drunk- 
enness, the  best  results  were  obtained  in  the  way  of 
discipline,  a  kind  of  primitive  "  high-license,"  so  to  speak. 


106  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 


CHAPTER  XYI. 


THE  IRISHMAN — THE  DOG-ROBBER — NO  VEGETABLES — 
THE  "red  mustang" — THE  GOOD  INDIAN — SWEAR- 
ING OFF — FALLING  FROM  GRACE — HUMAN  NATURE 
THE  SAME  IN  OR  OUT  OF  THE  ARMY — THE  SNAKE 
BITE — "like  cures  LIKE." 

My  company  at  tli^'s  time  was  composed  priiicipally 
of  Irish,  Germans  and  Americans,  although  some  three 
or  four  other  nationalities  were  represented  in  it.  The 
three  named  were  about  eciual  in  point  of  numbers,  say 
twenty  or  twenty-five  of  each. 

The  Irishman,  seen  in  a  military  point  of  view,  pre- 
sents by  far  his  most  favorable  aspect,  and  as  I  had 
previous  to  the  war  become  skei)tical  in  regard  to  the 
traditional  "  Irish  wit,"  as  immortalized  by  various  por- 
trayers  of  Irish  character,  it  was  because  I  had  not 
seen  him  at  his  best.  Cheerful,  a])t  to  learn  his  duties, 
ready  to  adapt  himself  to  ever^^  circumstance  and  con- 
dition, generally  obedient  to  his  superiors,  and  blessed 
with  a  robust  frame,  I  think  I  am  im|)artial  when  I  say 
the  Irishman  is  by  far  the  ])est  soUber  in  our  army. 
Oppressed  and  robbed  at*  home,  virtually  without  a 
country  of  his  own  to  fight  for,  he  has  been  at  the  front, 
and  in  the  fiercest  of  the  fight,  on  every  battlefield  from 
Fontenoy  to  Ai)pomattox,  and  he  has  always  held  his 
own  with  honor  to  the  flag  under  which  he  fought. 


FIVE    YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  107 

Kearly  all  the  old  soldiers  in  my  time  were  Trishmeu 
(by  old  soldiers  1  mean  tliose  of  lifteeii  or  twenty  years 
service),  but  oe(iask)nal]y  a  German,  or,  even  more 
rarely,  an  American,  oflong  service  was  found,  but  the 
latter  very  seldom  indeed,  and,  when  found,  usually  of 
of  such  in<'orrigibly  bad  habits  as  to  be  worthless. 

The  Germans  make  good  army  laborers  and  first- 
class  (Jog-rohhevH,  the  latter  being  one  of  the  institutions 
of  the  serv'ce,  and  may  deserve  and  certainly  requires 
some  exi)lanat!on  to  the  civilian  who  may  read  these 
sketches.  Every  officer  in  the  army  has  (or  had  twenty 
years  ago)  one  or  more  of  the  enl'sted  men  of  his  com- 
pany hanging  around  his  quarters,  who  perform  service 
part  military  and  i)art  menial,  who  fall  heir  to  his  cast- 
off'  clothing,  drink  his  whiskey, run  errands  for  his  wife, 
build  chicken-coops,  draw  rations,  attend  his  horses, 
and,  in  short,  gobble  up  all  the  "  crumbs  "  of  whatever 
kind  that  "  fall  from  his  table,"  hence  the  very  expres- 
sive term,  dog-rohber.  There  are  of  course  in  every 
command  some  men  who  have  no  i)ride  about  them, 
and  st-11  less  self-respect,  who  are  glad  to  escape  the 
jjerformance  of  the'r  military  duties ;  these  readily 
become  candklates  for  the  position  of  dog-robber,  and 
sooner  or  later  meet  their  reward.  Any  one  experi- 
enced in  army  aff'airs  can  tell  one  of  these  gentry  as 
far  as  he  can  see  Irm  from  certain  distingu'shing  traits 
that  he  always  exhibits,  among  which  are  wearing  some 
article  of  officers'  clothing,  as  an  old  fatigue  coat  or 
pants  with  the  remains  of  the  stripe  still  visible,  a 
civilian  hat,  a  stump  of  a  c'gar  in  his  mouth,  or,  if 
mounted,  carrying  a  jug  or  demijohn,  and  riding  at  a 
furious  gallop,  the  latter  being  usually  prohibited.  In 
addition  to  these  i)eculiarities,  he  is  generally  supplied 
with  small  change,  carries  an  old  watch  and  chain,  and 
is  possessed  of  all  the  latest  ncAvs  from  headquarters 


108  FIVE    YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

and  tlie  current  scandal  of  the  mess  table.  The  latter 
lie  always  retails  out  to  admiring  crowds  Avhen  he  visits 
the  comi)any,  and  in  return  carries  the  company  news 
to  the  officers.  Every  man  who  has  been  in  the  army 
wUl  recognize  the  above  i)icture  as  being  true  and  not 
in  the  least  overdrawn  in  any  particular. 

A  perfect  plague  of  grasshoppers  visited  us  during 
the  early  fall,  and  they,  in  addition  to  the  drouth  already 
prevailing,  completely  destroyed  every  vestige  of  vege- 
tation and  rendered  the  prairie  as  broAvn  and  desolate 
looking  as  if  swept  by  tire.  The  drouth,  wh'ch  set  in 
in  June,  continued,  only  broken  by  an  occasional 
shower,  and  the  water  sui)ply  became  less  and  less, 
and  the  situation  was  fast  growing  critical.  The  dis- 
tance from  the  nearest  frontier  settlements  was  thirty 
or  forty  m'les,  and  vegetable  food  was  so  hard  to  pro- 
cure, that,  in  connection  with  the  reduced  water  supply, 
it  caused  a  good  deal  of  s'ckness,  and  for  weeks  to- 
gether I  marched  twenty  to  thh^ty  men  to  the  hosp'tal 
three  times  daUy  for  the^'r  "ration"  of  quinine.  Wild 
omons  grew  on  the  pra'ries  and  furnished  a  wholesome 
and  palatable  addHionto  our  soup,  and  at  long  intervals 
some  venturesome  farmer  from  Denton  or  Wise  came 
in  with  a  load  of  sweet  ])otatoes,  wh^ch  were  eagerly 
bought.  Mustang  grapes  grew  in  abundance  on  the 
streams  and  were  gathered  in  great  quantities,  but  they 
never  seemed  very  palatable  to  me,  the  skin  possessing 
astringent  properties  that  were  apt  to  make  the  mouth 
sore.  They  make  an  excellent  sour  wine  much  Ike  claret 
and  are  one  of  the  handsomest  varieties  of  the  native 
American  grape,  although  Longfellow,  in  h^s  song  of  the 
Catawba  wine,  disi)0se8  of  it  with  rather  faint  i)raise: 

'  'The  rod  mustang,  wliosc  clusters  hang 
By  the  hanks  of  the  Colora<lo; 
And  the  fiery  flood  of  wliose  purple  hlood 
Has  a  touch  of  the  Spanish  bravado. ' ' 


FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  109 

Tlie  German  residonts  of  tlie  State,  coiniiii»'  as  they 
do  from  the  "haiiute  I  Ithine,"  on^ht  to  know,  and  they 
pronounce  it  the  finest  wine-producing  grape  we  have. 
On  the  Brazos  and  Colorado  the  vines  grow  to  a  huge 
size,  climbing  the  great  trees  a  hundred  feet  high,  and 
entirely  covering  them  with  thcT  festoons,  and  filled 
with  great  bunches  of  the  beautiful  fruit,  iirewent  a 
lovely  i)icture. 

About  a  month  after  our  Ind^"an  "  scare  "  a  detail  of 
oiu'  command  visited  Fort  Arbuckle,  and  were  informed 
by  the  beef  contractor,  who  had  just  returned  from  a 
"big  talk"  that  General  Harney  had  held  w'th  the 
Kiowas  at  Medicine  Lodge  Creek,  that  he  overheard 
the  Indians  (he  s])oke  their  language  and  was  also  in- 
terpreter) boasting  of  their  recent  raid  into  Texas,  and 
of  having  secured,  "  maybe  so,  some  scalps  and  heap 
horses.*'  The  fact  was  well  known  to  all  the  people  in 
this  section  that  all  the  outrages  of  th^'s  period  com- 
mitted were  the  work  of  "treaty  Indians,*'  and  the 
scalping-knives  and  bullets  that  decimated  all  Xorthem 
Texas  were  furnished  to  them  by  our  "  paternal "  gov- 
ernment. Later  on,  however,  General  Mackenzie,  when 
placed  in  command  of  Fort  Sill,  in  the  language  of  old 
John  Hoffman,  solirated  them,  put  them  to  work,  and 
they  "rode  on  their  raids  no  more.'' 

Our  sutler  received  an  invoice  of  whiskej'  late  in 
August,  and  one  of  the  periodical  "drunks"  occurred, 
which  was  marked  by  such  fearful  results  that  after 
two  days  the  post  surgeon  ordered  the  commanding 
officer  to  shut  off  the  supply,  which  on  this  occasion 
was  an  unusually  bad  quality  of  Lou'siana  rum.  whose 
death-dealing  properties  were  of  the  maximum  strength 
and  efficiency.  Poor  Jim  DeForrest  was  found  on  top 
of  the  forage  house  insisting  on  witnessing  and  taking- 
part  in  a  balloon  ascension,  and  had  to  be  confined  in 


110  FIVE    YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

the  guard-house.  Another  fellow  was  found  away  out 
on  the  prairie  endeavoring  to  lariat  grasshoppers,  but 
the  timely  interference  of  the  surgeon  shut  off  the  sup- 
ply and  its  further  effects  were  coutined  to  the  officers 
l)resent.  All  old  soldiers  who  are  habitual  drunkards 
are  much  addicted  to  periodically  ^'  swearing  off/' 
which  usually  happens  when  their  money  is  all  gone, 
or  excessive  drinking  has  pretty  nearly  killed  them,  or 
Avhen  no  whiskey  can  be  procured,  and  during  these 
periods  of  abstinence  one  of  these  temporarily  reformed 
old  sold"ers  is  exceedingly  "uiilitary,"  and  unduly 
critical  toward  drunkards  in  general.  But  alas !  the 
paymaster  comes,  or  the  sutler  renews  his  supply,  when 
frail  human  nature  again  succumbs,  and  the  old  lines 
are  again  verified : 

"When  the  devil  was  sick, 
The  devil  a  monk  would  be; 
But  when  the  devil  got  well , 
The  devil  a  monk  was  he.  " 

However,  human  nature  in  the  army  or  out  of  it  is 
about  the  same,  but  in  a  military  command  it  is  a  little 
more  condensed,  as  it  were,  and  a  greater  variety  of 
the  lights  and  shadows  thrown  into  a  smaller  space  than 
in  civil  life. 

In  connection  with  the  old  soldier's  love  for  whiskey, 
an  anecdote  was  current  in  my  company  of  one  Pat 
Maloney,  good  enough  to  be  true,  which,  by  the  way,  I 
have  no  doubt  it  was :  One  Sunday  morning,  while  the 
company  was  "  policing"  the  company  street,  and  other- 
wise getting  ready  for  "  Sunday  morning  inspection,"  a 
soldier  named  John  Burns,  who  had  been  sent  to  the 
edge  of  a  neighboring  stream  to  cut  weeds  to  make 
brooms  of,  was  bitten  by  a  venomous  snake.  There 
being  no  surgeon  present  with  the  company,  the  Cap- 
tain took  the  case  in  hand,  and  it  being  before  the 
days  of  "Bibron's  Antidote"  and  kindred  remedies,  he 


FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  Ill 

took  the  good  old  ])lan  of  pouring  whiskey,  ad  libitum, 
into  the  patient,  which  soon  proved  efticacious,  as  it 
usually  does,  on  the  principle  ])erhap8  of  siniilia  siinilihus 
cnrantur,  one  poison  counteracting  another,  and  the 
fellow  was  soon  out  of  danger.  The  com])any  "  fell 
in  "  for  inspection,  but  Paddy  Maloney  was  absent,  and 
was  so  reported  by  the  First  Sergeant.  As  inspection 
proceeded,  the  Captain  happened  to  glance  toAvard  the 
creek  and  there  saw  the  said  Maloney,  his  i)ants  rolled 
up  to  his  knees,  barefooted,  tramping  back  and  forth 
among  the  weeds,  as  if  in  search  of  something.  A 
Corporal  was  dispatched  for  the  culprit,  and  directly 
he  presented  himself  before  the  irate  ofticer  with  all  of 
an  Irishman's  nonchalance.  "  What  were  you  doing- 
out  there,  and  why  were  you  absent  from  inspection, 
sir  !  "  demanded  the  Captain.  "Ah,  sir,"  was  the  reply, 
"  I  saw  the  tratement  John  Burns  got  for  the  snake- 
bite, and  I  thought  it  worth  me  while  to  try  and  get 
one  meself."  This  was  too  much  for  ev  en  army  d^'sci- 
pline,  and  although  jokes  from  enlisted  men  are  seldom 
appreciated,  in  this  case  the  Captain's  sense  of  humor 
got  the  best  of  him,  and  he  ordered  a  quart  of  whiskey 
for  Paddy,  with  orders  for  him  to  be  compelled  to  drink 
it  all  at  once;  whether  the  man  considered  it  a  punish- 
ment or  not  I  cannot  say. 


112  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 


CHAPTER  XYII. 


MONOTONY  —  NEW  QUARTERS  —  TEXAS  GAME  —  THE 
ANTELOPE — THE  "  SPENCER " — TURKEY  HUNTING — • 
THE  COW-HUNTER — THE  "  BUCKING"  PONY — THE 
"  COW-BRUTE." 

I  HAVE  somewhere  seen  it  remarked  that  monotony 
has  one  compensating  feature — looked  back  on,  the 
time  seems  shorter  than  when  crowded  with  events. 
The  truth  of  this  remark  has  been  much  impressed  on 
my  mind  by  the  experience  of  this  long  and  tiresome 
summer,  one  day  like  another,  seeming  as  if  it  never 
would  end,  but  looked  back  on  now,  it  seems  like  a 
passing  shadow  or  a  "tale  that  is  told." 

As  fall  approached,  our  temporary  quarters  had  to 
be  made  comfortable  for  the  winter,  and  we  bu^lt  them 
in  detached  houses,  each  one  with  room  for  six  men, 
with  fireplace  and  covered  with  canvas,  and  they  were 
rendered  exceedingly  comfortable.  The  men  took 
esi)ecial  pains  with  mine,  and  fixed  me  up  in  good  style  ; 
in  fact,  I  had  the  best  house  at  the  post.  It  possessed 
a  board  floor,  which  I  carpeted  with  condemned 
blankets,  lined  the  walls  with  canvas,  and  had  a  nice 
room  about  ten  by  sixteen  feet  in  size,  a  window  on  the 
east  and  south,  and  a  fireplace  that  ])ossessed  the 
quality  of  drawing,  which  few  army  chimneys  exhibited. 

At  the  time  1  am  writing  of,  in  no  part  of  the  Union 


FIVE    YEARS    A    CAVALRYMAN.  113 

could  the  sportsman  find  such  a  variety  and  abuudauce 
of  game  as  was  to  be  liad  in  this  part  of  Texas.  From 
the  lordlj^  buffalo,  which  still  roamed  in  untold  thou- 
sands over  the  broad  i)rairies  of  Northwest  Texas,  to 
the  little  "  cotton-ta'l '' rabbit  which  sprang-  u})  before 
you  at  every  step,  every  variety  of  game  except  the 
"grizzly"  could  be  found.  Deer  and  antelope  were 
Aery  plenty,  and  our  mess  table  was  supplied  almost 
daily  with  the  tinest  venison.  The  latter  animal  existed 
in  the  greatest  numbers,  and  notwithstanding  its  ex- 
treme shyness  and  tleetness  of  foot,  its  curiosity^ 
feminine  in  its  intensity,  was  the  failing  oftenest  taken 
advantage  of  by  the  hunter  to  capture  it.  It  generally 
was  found  in  bunches  of  from  s'x  to  ten,  and  on  the 
api)roach  of  danger  was  off  with  the  speed  of  the  wind, 
occasionally  halting  for  an  instant  in  its  flight  to  gaze 
back  on  its  i)ursuer.  If  mounted  on  a  fleet  and  well 
winded  horse,  and  aided  by  a  couple  of  good  hounds, 
they  were  run  down  in  a  ride  of  a  few  miles,  but  the 
plan  oftenest  resorted  to  was  to  decoy  them,  which 
was  done  by  the  hunter  dismounting  and  fastening  h's 
handkerchief  to  a  bush,  and  the  more  brilliant  its  color 
the  more  certani  it  was  to  attract  the  notice  of  the 
antelope.  The  unevenness  of  the  prairie  rendered  it 
easy  for  the  hunter  to  h^de  and  await  the  approach  of 
the  game,  which,  seeing  no  one  in  sight,  would  curiously 
and  pant'ngly  turn  and  begin  to  approach  the  flutterng 
and  attractive  decoy  as  it  waved  on  the  bush  or  weeds. 
Directly  it  would  stop,  look  around,  and  seeing  no 
danger,  and  impelled  by  its  curiosity,  would  draw 
nearer  and  nearer  until  within  range,  a  coui)le  hundred 
yards  ])erhaps,  when  bang!  would  go  the  "  Spencer," 
and  the  ])Oor  creature  had  fallen  a  victim  to  its  weak- 
ness or  misplaced  confldence.  The  antelope  is  one  of 
the  most  beautiful  and  graceful  of  creatures,  its  delicate 


114  ,  FIVE   YEAKS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

limbs  and  great  liquid  eyes  are  a  realization  of  the  oft 
sung  gazelle,  and  the  fellow  must  be  an  enthusiastic 
and  hardened  sportsman,  indeed,  to  kill  one  without 
experiencing  something  of  a  pang. 

The  "  Spencer  carbine,"  with  which  the  cavalr^^  was 
armed  in  my  time,  has  long  since  been  replaced  by 
other  arms,  but  it  had  many  good  features,  among 
which  its  strength  and  durability  were  prominent. 
Now  and  then  I  see  one  of  them  in  the  hands  of  a 
native  here,  a  relic  of  other  days,  handed  down  from 
the  halcyon  time  so  often  referred  to  as  "  when  the 
post  was  here."  But  the  Spencer  carbine,  the  blue 
"army  overcoat,"  and  the  "  U.  S."  horse  will  soon  be 
as  traditional  as  the  buffalo  or  the  Indian,  and  a  gen- 
eration will  occupy  the  land  that  knew  them  not. 

The  wild  turkey  in  those  days  abounded  on  all  the 
timbered  watercourses,  and  were  I  to  truthfullj^  and 
exactly  state  the  numbers  that  our  hunting  parties 
somet^'mes  brought  in,  my  veracity  would  be  immedi- 
ately called  into  question,  and  the  remarks  made  in  a 
preceding  chapter  relative  to  the  '•  old  settler  "  would 
be  applied  to  mj^self.  This  bird,  the  most  magnificent 
of  North  American  fowls,  ought  to  have  been  our 
national  emblem,  instead  of  the  cruel  and  thieving 
eagle,  the  symbol  of  tyranny  and  oppression.  The 
actual  sport  of  killing  wild  turkeys  is  not  very  great ; 
the  surroundings,  the  accessories,  the  occasion,  the 
make-up  of  the  hunting  party,  all  must  be  considered, 
and  among  my  pleasantest  experiences  of  these  days 
are  the  turkey  hunts  I  took  part  in.  The  usual  i)lan 
was  for  about  five  congenial  fellows  to  make  uj)  the 
party,  and  provided  with  "  passes,"  good  until  noon 
next  day,  would  saddle  up,  and,  furnished  with  "  sup- 
plies" (a  comprehensive  term),  leave  camp  about  four 
in  the  afternoon.     Shot  guns  were  always  carried  in 


FIVE    YEARS   A    (CAVALRYMAN.  115 

a(i(lition  to  our  carbines  and  p'stols,  the  carbhio  not 
beino-  very  reliable  for  night  shooting.  Reac^hing  our 
hunting  ground,  always  on  the  bank  of  a  stream,  about 
dark,  sui)i)er  was  cooked,  and  then  the  arrangements 
made  for  the  hunt.  If  there  was  a  moon,  and  moonlight 
nights  were  the  best,  the  time  would  be  passed  around 
the  camptire  until  it  rose,  when  the  party  wouUl  divide 
into  two  squads,  one  going  down  the  stream  below  the 
roost,  the  other  going  above  it.  One  of  the  party,  a 
"  non-combatant,''  who  went  along  for  the  eating  and 
drinking,  rather  than  shooting,  was  left  in  camp  to  take 
charge  of  the  horses  and  suppL'es.  i^ow  the  s])ort 
would  begin ;  the  turkeys,  bewildered  by  the  firing  on 
both  flanks,  would  soon  become  demoralized,  and  every 
little  while  the  heavy  crash  of  branches,  as  the  falling 
bird  dro])ped  from  his  perch  into  the  underbrush  below, 
told  of  a  successful  shot.  By  midnight  we  generally 
bagged  three  or  four  apiece,  and  t-red  out  w'th  strug- 
gling through  the  thick  undergrowth  in  securing  the 
game  after  it  fell,  would  stretch  ourselves  around  the 
campfire  and  enjoy  such  repose  as  only  a  tired-out 
hunter  can  enjoy,  and  such  as  can  only  be  had  in  the 
woods,  breathing  the  pure  ah^,  and  canopied  by  the 
brilliant  sky  of  this  latitude.  Bright  and  early  we 
would  wake  up,  and  the  "  early  bird  "  would  often  be 
rewarded  by  an  addit^'onal  turkej^,  for  it  is  not  a  wary 
bird,  and  often  had  no  more  sense  than  to  be  found  on 
the  same  trees  which  its  companions  had  been  shot  off 
of  the  previons  night.  I  hav^e  given  my  opinion  on  the 
flavor  of  the  wild  turkey  heretofore ;  it  may  be  heresy, 
but  I  do  not  thhik  it  is  equal  in  any  respect  to  its 
civilized  i)rototyi)e,  that  has  been  fattened  in  the  barn- 
yard. 

The  remarks  made  above  as  to  the  superiority  of  a 
^'barnyard  turkey"  over  the  wild  one,  applied  as  well 


116  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

to  Texas  beef,  "  wld  beef"  it  iirght  be  properly  called^ 
for  the  cattle  were  as  wild  as  any  other  animal  that  is 
born,  ra'sed,  lives  and  d^es  on  the  prairie,  without  any 
other  shelter  or  food  than  such  as  nature  provides. 
The  Texas  steer,  when  fed  and  fattened  for  the  markets, 
however,  cannot  be  sur[)assed,  l)ut  in  the  days  of  twenty 
years  ago  the  only  means  of  getting  cattle  from  this 
section  to  market  was  a  long  and  tiresome  drive  of 
many  hundred  mHes,  months  being  consumed  in  the 
trip,  dur'ng  wh^ch  the  cattle  actually  fattened  if  the 
grass  was  good  and  prudence  used  in  driving  them. 

The  term  "cow-hunter"  used  in  these  pages  has  (or 
had)  a  pecul'ar  s^i^n'ticance  in  tlv^e  region,  where  in 
times  not  very  remote  the  "  cow  "  was  the  medium  of 
exchange,  the  standard  of  values,  the  one  industry  that 
overshadowed  and  ed'psed  all  others.  At  that  time 
every  man  in  Western  Texas,  be  he  merchant,  mechanic, 
preacher,  millionaire  or  poor  white,  owned  more  or  less 
cattle,  and  estimated  himself,  and  was  estimated  by 
others,  and  took  his  place  in  society,  in  exact  propor- 
tion to  the  "cows"  he  owned.  Xot  "cattle,"  but 
"  cows,"  not  a  "  cattleman,"  but  a  "  cowman."  that  was 
the  generic  term.  In  si)eaking  of  the  individual  cow, 
he  generally  called  it  a  "  cow-brute  ;  "  why  "  brute,"  I 
never  could  see  the  point  in  particular,  for  he  never 
sa^d  "horse-brute,"  or  "hog-brute,"  but  always  "cow- 
brute."  The  complicated  system  of  marks  and  brands 
was  as  unintelligible  to  me  as  the  marks  on  an  Egyptian 
monument,  but  was  so  })lain  to  the  native  that  "he  who 
ran  might  read,"  and  tlrs  literally,  for  as  the  cowman 
dashed  over  the  i)rairie  at  full  si)eed  the  marked  ears 
and  the  often  obscure  brand  was  as  an  open  book. 
The  cowman  of  those  days  led  a  hard  and  adventurous 
life;  he  was  by  turns  hunter  and  Indian  fighter,  for  his 
cattle  roamed  over  a  vast  range,  and  in  his  pursuit  of 


\  FIVE    YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  117 

tlieiii  he  was  likely  at  any  time  to  meet  witli  bauds  of 
hostile  Ind'aiis  and  have  to  ti|L»]it  for  his  life.  lie  was 
a  walkino-  (or  r'dhii;)  arsenal  in  the  way  of  firearms,  and 
earned  his  double-barreled  shot  .I'lin  'leross  his  la^), 
and  his  two  big  brass-mounted,  old-fasbioned  dragoon 
pistols  in  his  belt.  The  daily  struggle  for  existence 
that  was  led  by  the  cowman,  h's  fam'barity  with  danger, 
his  constant  exi)Osure  to  the  elements,  his  woodcraft, 
all  combhied  to  make  h'm  an  ideal  front'ersman,  who  is 
fast  passhig  away.  In  these  degenerate  days  of  syndi- 
cates and  pasture  fences  and  cattle  knigs,  the  cowman 
of  twenty  years  ago  is  nearly  ext'nct,  and  soon  we  w'll 
know  h*m  no  more. 

The  identity  of  the  cowman  and  h's  horse  was  in- 
separable— he  was  a  veritable  centaur,  half  horse,  half 
man — and  the  little  Texas  boy,  before  he  could  hardly 
walk  alone,  could  scramble  or  "  shin  "  up  on  the  back 
of  the  tallest  horse,  without  the  a'd  of  stTruj),  mounting 
block  or  stump  ;  would  se'ze  the  mane  w'th  one  hand, 
the  bridle  w"th  the  other,  and  scamper  over  the  praries 
at  a  breakneck  s])eed  that  would  frighten  a  Northern 
mother  out  of  her  wits.  The  horses  used  in  thote 
days  were  all  small,  and  invariably  called  pon^'es,  seldom 
over  fourteen  hands  high ;  in  fact,  they  had  a  theory 
that  larger  horses  were  not  suited  to  the  cow  business, 
an  idea  exploded  in  these  latter  times,  and  larger  horses 
are  now  in  demand.  The  Texas  pony,  often  of  Spanish 
descent,  is  a  hardy  and  faithful  brute,  barring  h-s  one 
propensity  to  "  buck  "  and  "  pitch,"  an  unpleasant  habit 
I  had  never  seen  any  exhibition  of  before,  the  "Wild 
West"  shows  of  latter  days  being  unknown  in  my 
boyhood. 


118  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALKYMAN. 


CHAPTER  XYITI. 


GAMBLING — BEFLEDTIOINS — "TAKING  A  BLANKET" — 
THE  "bobtail" — "a  YEAR  AND  A  BUTT" — INDIANS 
AT  JACKSBORO — THE  CRAWFORD  EPISODE  —  THE 
OLD  PIANO. 

The  passion  for  games  of  chance,  or,  plainlj'  speak- 
ing, gambling,  seems  to  be  as  universal  as  humanity, 
and  in  some  shape  or  other  is  indulged  in  by  the  savage 
in  the  Avilderness,  as  well  as  by  the  habitue  of  the 
gilded  halls  of  the  city.  In  the  army  gambling  is  (or 
was)  as  prevalent  as  drunkenness,  but,  unlike  the  latter, 
it  d'd  not  necessarily  interfere  with  the  military  duties 
of  the  men,  and  it  was  seldom  interfered  with  by  the 
officers. 

There  is  a  paragraph  in  the  "  Regulat^'ons  "  prohibit- 
ing officers  fi"om  indulging  in  gambling,  but  like  too 
many  other  of  the  army  regulations,  it  is  null  and  void 
so  far  as  officers  were  concerned,  the  regulat'ons  ap- 
parently being  only  intended  to  apply  to  sold  ers  when 
it  seems  necessary  to  make  an  example  of  one  for  the 
"good  of  the  service."  As  the  intervals  are  very  long 
at  frontier  ])osts  between  the  visits  of  the  paymaster, 
and  money,  in  consequence,  at  times,  an  unknown 
quantity,  the  articles  gambled  for  are  clothing,  tobacco, 
ammunition,  and  even  the  prospective  pay  to  become 
due.     Much  might  be  said  in  extenuation  of  this  vice, 


FIVE    YEARH    A    CAVALRYMAN.  119' 

however,  among-  the  soldiers,  from  the  ftict  that  at  that 
date  tliere  was  an  ent-re  absence  of   any  orj>an'zed 
effort  to   elevate  or  render  the  condition  of  tlie  rank 
and  file  of  the  army  more  tolerable.     Oe(?asionally  some 
company  or  post  commander  would  be  found  who  was 
a  humane  and   christian  man,  one   who  regarded   li^s 
"men"  as  a  little  better  than  the  brute,  if  they  were 
lower  than  the  angels,  and  who  encouraged  reading  and 
other  rational  amusements  among  his  men,  but  in  my 
wide  ex])erience  I  have  known  but  one  such,  and  his 
efforts  were  so  signally  successful  that  it  was  a  matter 
of  surprise  to  me  that  it  was  not  oftener  attempted  l)y 
intell\gent    officers.     No  chaplains   were   stationed  at 
any  of  the  frontier  posts  in  my  time,  no  religious  ser- 
vice was  held  on   Sunday,  no  "  church-going  bell "  in 
the   shape    of   "  church-call "    was   ever    sounded,   no 
relig'ous  ceremony  was  performed  over  the   soldier's 
grave,  except    perchance    some  Lieutenant  read  the 
burial  service  from  an  old  prayer-book.     Happ'ly  for 
the   service,  I  learn  that  all  this  is  altered  now,  that 
chaplains,  libraries  and  readnig-rooms  are  to  be  found 
at  most  military  stations,  and  as  a  consequence  the 
whole    tone    of  the    army    has    been    elevated    and 
improved. 

The  "  term  of  service  "  of  many  of  the  best  men  in 
my  company  expired  during  the  fall  of  1867,  they 
having  enb'sted  during  the  fall  of  18(U  for  three  years, 
or  else  had  been  at  their  own  request  transferred  from 
the  volunteer  service  to  the  regular  army  at  the  close 
of  the  war.  None  of  them,  I  believe,  re-enlisted  at  this 
time,  but  most  of  them  found  their  way  back  into  the 
service  afterward.  As  the  time  approaches  for  a  man's 
discharge,  he  looks  forward  to  it  with  an  indescribable- 
longing,  counts  the  months,  weeks  and  days,  and  glories. 
over  his  unfortunate  comrades   who  are  only  in  the. 


120  FIVE  YEARS  A   CAVALRYMAN. 

iucipieiicy  of  their  service.  There  is  a  whole  lot  of 
slan^-  peculiar  to  the  soldier  and  to  his  surrouudiiigs, 
relat  ve  to  his  discharge,  his  re-enlistment,  etc.,  that 
will  revive  memories  among  the  boys  when  they  see 
the  expressions  in  print,  perhaps  for  the  hrst  time, 
but  which  once  were  as  household  words  to  them. 
When  a  fellow  has  only  a  little  more  than  a  year  to 
serve,  he  says  he  has  "  only  a  year  and  a  butt,"  or  later 
on,  "a  month  and  a  butt."  He  never  says  he  exi)ects, 
or  has  his  discharge  ;  he  always  calls  it  Irs  "  buzzard," 
precsumably  owing  to  the  spread-eagle  which  decorates 
said  document.  If  he  alludes  to  his  chances  of  re- 
enlistment  he  will  be  heard  to  say:  "I  guess  I'll  take 
another  blanket  when  this  one  is  worn  out,  one  with 
five  pockets  in  it,"  alluding  to  the  length  of  the  term, 
five  years.  At  the  bottom  of  the  discharge  the  word 
"  character"  is  printed,  and  below  it  are  a  few  blank 
lines  upon  which  h*s  company  ofticer  may  give  the 
standing  of  the  soldier,  usually  expressed  in  a  few 
words,  such  as  "  good,"  "  faithful,"  and  "  efficient,"  or 
something  of  the  kind.  In  case,  however,  that  the  man 
has  been  below  the  usual  standard,  a  drunkard,  a 
malingerer,  an  untidy  or  unfaithful  and  troublesome 
fellow,  and  one  to  whom  the  officer  cannot  consistently 
give  a  good  character,  the  lines  or  "  character  "  are  cut 
of}',  and  a  mutilated  discharge  of  this  kind  is  universally 
known  in  army  parlance  as  a  "  bob-tail "  discharge. 

Dur'ng  part  of  this  fall  I  enjoyed  (as  an  Irishman 
nrght  say)  very  bad  health,  at  least  was  only  fit  for 
duty  in  my  (juarters,  where  I  was  i)ermitted  to  remain 
by  the  surgeon.  Our  i)ost  having  been  augmented  to 
four  companies,  it  became  a  "field  officer's"  command, 
and  word  was  received  about  the  middle  of  November 
that  Colonel  Morris,  the  senior  Major  of  the  regiment, 
was  en  route  from  Austin  to  assume  command.     My 


FIVE  YEARS   A   CAVALRYMAN.  121 

Captain,  deshii)i>"  to  pay  proper  attention  to  the  recep- 
tion of  the  old  fellow,  directed  me  to  select  a  Corporal, 
ten  privates,  an  ambulance  and  wagon  and  team,  and 
proceed  to  meet  him.     We  left  the  camp  on  Sunday 
evenino-  ]ust  before  dark,  reaching  Jacksboro,  about 
thirty  miles  distant,  at  midnight,  and  camped  with  the 
mail  detail  in  an  old  picket  hut  that  stood  where  the 
"  Wichita"  Hotel  now  is.     The  country  had  been  filled 
with  Indian  rumors  for  some  days,  and  we  found  the 
whole  population  in  arms,  and  much  excitement  pre- 
vailing, for   that  very   evening  before   our  arrival  an 
attack  had  been  made  on  the  home  of  Doc  Cooper,  just 
on  the  outskirts  of  the  town,  many   shots   exchanged, 
and  an  Indian  either  killed  or  desperately  wounded,  as 
blood  was  found  for  a  long  distance  on  the  trail  w^here 
they  (the  Indians)  had  carried  Mm  off.     The  maU  party 
coming  in  from  Weatherford  had  also  had  a  skirmish 
the  day  previous,  about  where  Jack  Wall's  place  is 
now.     We   passed  the  night  without   any  alarm,  and 
next  day  made  "  Crawford's  "   by  noon  and  went  into 
camp,  as  we  were  in  no  particular  hurry  to  finish  this 
kind  of  duty,  and  did  not  know  where  we  would  meet 
the  Major,  having  only  orders  to  proceed  until  we  met 
him  and  his  escort. 

"  Crawford's,"  twenty-four  miles  from  Jacksboro  and 
sixteen  from  Weatherford,  was  a  landmark  in  those 
days,  as  it  was  the  last  house  out  from  the  latter  place  ; 
all  beyond  it  to  the  north  and  west  was  the  "forest 
primeval."  The  family  were  always  hospitable  to  the 
soldiers  who  passed  there,  and  I  have  no  doubt  to-day, 
scattered  over  the  Union,  many  an  old  officer  and  sol- 
dier of  the  "  Sixth  "  will  remember  the  uniform  courtesy 
and  kindness  extended  to  them  by  these  people.  There 
is  hardly  a  family  who  lived  on  this  frontier  twenty 
years  ago  but  has  had  part  of  its  history  written  in  the 


122  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

blood  of  some  of  its  inembers,  shed  by  the  savages,  in 
the  struggle  for  existence  that  was  maintained  by  the 
])^oneer,  and  having  heard  that  Mrs.  Crawford's  first 
husband  had  been  killed  right  here  by  the  Indians  a 
few  years  before,  I  learned  from  her  the  i)articnlars  of 
the  sad  story. 

In  the  fall  of  1800,  Indian  depredations  had   been 
more  frequent  than  usual,  and  had  been  characterized 
by  unusual  ferocity  on  the   part  of  the  Indians.     The 
settlements  were  few  and  far  apart ;  Weatherford  was 
a  little  hamlet,  and  Jacksboro  had  perhaps  a  dozen 
families,  and  the  nearest  neighbors  were  twelve  miles 
off.     A   party   of  cow-hunters  passing  down  into  the 
settlements  one  evening  informed  them  that  the  whole 
"upper  country"  was  full  of  Indians,  and  that  several 
families  had   been   murdered,  and  they  were  then  on 
the'r    way  into  the  settlements  to  give  the  alarm  and 
ra'se  a  party  of  men  to  protect  the  frontier.     The  lady's 
husband  (Brown  I  think  was  his  name)  at  once  started 
with  a   negro  hand  for  his  ranch,  some  miles  distant, 
with  the  intention  of  driving  his  horses  to  the  house, 
where  he  had  a  safe  corral  in  which  to  herd  them,  leav- 
ing his  wife  and  the  remainder  of  the  family  in  a  state 
of  alarm,  for  it  was  more  than  likely  the  Indians  would 
reach  them  before  he  could  return.     It  may  easily  be 
imagined  that  the  inmates  spent  a  sleepless  n'ght,  but 
it  ])aEsed  without  incident,  and  they  began  to  entertain 
hopes   that  the  father  would   return   in   safety.     The 
morning    ])assed  without  his  making  his  appearance, 
when  about  noon,  or  soon  thereafter,  a  ferm  hand  on 
the  lookout  reported  a  large  body  of  horseman  ap- 
])roaching  from  the   direction  of  Weatherford,  which 
they  supposed  to  be  the  citizens  who  had  gathered  to 
go  in  ])ursuit  of  the  Indians,  and  not  expecting  to  see 
Indians  crossing  from  that  direction,  but  as  they  came 


FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  123 

nearer  it  was  seen  to  be  a  lar^e  body  of  Indians, 
evidently  on  the  wari)ath.  eTnst  at  this  moment  the 
man  of  the  house  emerged  from  tlie  woods  on  the  op- 
posite side  of  the  farm,  driving  his  horses  before  him, 
and  now  it  was  a  race  for  life  or  death,  who  should 
reach  the  house  first,  he  or  the  Indians,  who  saw  him 
perhaps  just  as  he  did  them.     At  once 

"There  rose  as  wild  a  yen , 
As  tho'  the  fiends  from  heaven  that  feU 
Had  pealed  the  battlecry  of  hell , ' ' 

and  sweeping  down  upon  him  and  his  negro  man,  they 
seized  him  just  as  he  was  reaching  his  fence.  In  a 
moment  he  was  pierced  with  a  dozen  lances,  and  his 
scalp  torn  off  before  the  eyes  of  his  agonized  family, 
the  Indians  also  killing  h^s  servant.  The  inmates  had 
withdrawn  to  an  upi)er  half  story  and  had  barricaded 
the  house,  determining  to  sell  their  lives  as  dearly  as 
possible,  but  the  Indians,  actuated  by  one  of  those 
freaks  which  rendered  their  character  such  an  anomaly, 
appeared  to  have  satisfied  their  thirst  for  blood  for  the 
time  being,  deliberately  killed  a  cow  which  was  in  the 
pasture,  cooked  and  devoured  it,  after  which  they  set 
fire  to  the  fences  and  departed  without  offering  any 
further  violence  to  the  frightened  family.  After  they 
were  gone  the  family  buried  the  bodies  of  th..^  unfortu- 
nate men  in  a  corner  of  the  yard,  and  their  graves  were 
pointed  out  to  me. 

One  would  think,  after  so  horrible  an  experience,  the 
widow  would  at  once  have  packed  up  and  removed  to 
a  safer  place,  but  not  so  ;  the  pioneer  is  made  of  sterner 
stuff,  and  here  she  re-married  and  lived,  and  although 
up  to  the  time  I  am  writing  of,  and  since,  the  country 
had  been  periodically  ravaged,  her  house  had  never 
again  been  visited  by  hostile  Indians.  This  family  pos- 
sessed  a   piano,   something   quite   rare  so    far  at  the 


124  FIVE   YEARS    A    CAVALRYMAN. 

"front,"  ill  those  days,  and  a  yoniif]^  lady  of  the  house 
furnished  us  some  <40od  old-fasliioned  music  in  the 
evening  after  supper,  which  made  the  place  seem  like 
an  oasis,  a  green  spot,  finding  such  a  vestige  of  civiliza- 
t  on,  and  at  the  same  time  listening  to  a  tale  of  an 
IiuFan  massacre  committed  on  the  place  so  short  a 
time  before. 


FIVE    YEARS    A    CAVALRYMAN.  125 


CHAPTEE  XIX. 


THE  OLD  MA.TOE THE  "REGULAR'S"  OPINIOX  OF   THE 

MILITIAMAN  —  BUFFALO  SPRINGS  ABANDONED  — 
JOHNNY-COME-LATELY — HOOFS  INSTEAD  OF  AFFI- 
DAVITS— CALIFORNIA  JACK  LIVES  FOR  MONTHS  ON 
ACORNS  AND  GROWS  FAT. 

We  left  camp  bright  and  early  next  inorn'no-.  expect- 
ino-  to  reach  Weatherford  by  dinner  time  and  meet  the 
Major  there,  but  when  within  about  four  miles  from  the 
town  we  met  him  in  a  private  conveyance,  as  he  had 
not  expected  an  escort  to  receive  him.  I  had  heard  a 
great  deal  of  this  old  fellow,  and  was  pleased  with  his 
appearance,  but  I  became  very  tired  of  him  before  we 
got  back  to  Jacksboro.  Of  line  military  carriage,  great 
suavity  toward  inferiors,  the  ber^t  horseman  in  the 
army,  and  a  sufficiently  honorable  record  from  h's 
original  entry  into  the  "  ^Mounted  Rifles  "  uj)  to  the  end 
of  the  war,  he  should  have  made  his  mark  and  been 
higher  in  rank,  but  for  one  failing — whiskey.  Soldiers 
usually  love  and  respect  their  officers  in  direct  inverse 
ratio  to  their  efficiency  ^.s-  officers,  and  would  usually 
say  of  the  Major:  "Well,  he's  a  gentleman,  anyhow, 
drunk  or  sober."  jMcClellan  was  i)robably  more  nearly 
idolized  than  any  officer  in  history,  and  history  points 
to  but  few  who  made  less  use  of  their  opportunities. 
Grant,   the    greatest    soldier    of  the   age,   was   never 


126  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

popular  with  his  men ;  they  had  no  loving  nick-name 
for  him,  but  they  knew,  all  the  same,  that  Grant  and 
victory  were  synonymous  terms.  I  rode  in  the  ambu- 
lance with  the  Major,  at  his  request,  and  soon  found, 
as  his  tongue  loosened  up  under  the  influence  of  a 
bottle  of  "  hospital  supplies  "  that  had  been  sent  with 
me,  that,  like  most  all  the  ante  helium  army  ofticers,  he 
entertained  a  profound  contempt  for  oflicers  fi'om  the 
volunteer  service ;  those  from  the  ranks  and  the  West 
Pointers  were  only  in  reality  "  officers  and  gentlemen." 
In  this  connection  he  related  a  scene  he  had  witnessed 
in  Mexico : 

Before  General  Scott  had  arrived  to  assume  com- 
mand of  the  army,  General  Pillow  was  the  ranking 
officer,  and  was  very  fond  of  being  surrounded  by  a 
brilliant  staff  of  militia  soldiers  like  himself.  Passing 
a  battery  one  day  with  his  staff  he  saw  an  old  artillery 
Sergeant  seated  on  a  cassion  eating  his  dinner,  said 
old  soldier  taking  no  notice  of  nor  exhibiting  the 
slightest  sign  of  respect  at  the  approach  of  the  brilliant 
cortege,  ignoring  the  fact  that  the  commanding  officer 
of  the  Army  of  Southern  Mexico  was  anywhere 
about.  "  Get  off  that  gun ! "  roared  a  staff'  officer,  but 
the  old  Sergeant  made  no  move.  The  command  was 
repeated,  but  no  notice  taken.  General  Pillow  himself 
rode  up,  saying :  "  Why  don't  you  obey  orders,  sir ; 
don't  you  kuow  who  I  am  'I "  "  Yes,  sir,"  replied  the 
old  soldier,  quietly  chewing  the  remnant  of  his  dinner, 
"  but  this  battery  is  commanded  by  a  brevet  Second 
Lieutenant  of  the  regular  army,  and  he  ranks  all  the 

d d  volunteer  officers  and  militia  Generals  in  the 

army."     "Such,"  «aid  the   old   Major,   "is   about   my 
opinion,  too." 

We  again  cami)ed  at  Crawford's,  reaching  Jacksboro 
next  day,  where  the  Major  kept  the  whole  party  so 

1 


FIVE    YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  127 

drnnk  for  two  days  tliat  tliey  couldn't  even  take  eare 
of  tlieir  liorses.  We  iiually  readied  Bufif'alo  Si)riii<>^8, 
and  the  Major,  "bracing  up,"  rode  into  camp  in  tine 
style,  and  at  once  assumed  command  of  the  post. 

As  fall  advanced  the  sui)ply  of  water  became  less 
and  less,  and  about  December  1st  a  board  of  officers, 
who  arrived  from  department  headquarters  to  insi)ect 
the  post,  decided  to  abandon  it,  and  recommended 
Jacksboro,  with  its  abundant  sui)ply  of  excellent  water, 
as  the  site  for  the  new  military  post  of  "  Fort  Eichard- 
son,"  named  after  General  Elchardson  of  the  regular 
army,  who  was  killed  at  Antietam  in  September,  1862. 

Accordingly,  early  in  December,  one  trooj)  and  all  the 
Quartermaster's  employes,  teams  and  outfits  dei)arted 
for  Jacksboro  and  commenced  work  on  the  new  post. 
My  company  was  one  of  those  destined  to  spend  the 
winter  at  Buffalo  Springs,  at  which  we  were  well 
pleased,  as  we  had  gone  into  our  very  coiufortable 
"winter  quarters."  The  "experiment"  at  Buffalo 
Springs  cost,  I  understand,  close  to  one  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars,  but  it  and  the  post  at  Jacksboro  formed 
a  nucleus  for  the  returning  settlers  who  had  been  driven 
into  the  interior  at  the  outbreak  of  the  rebellion. 

Some  queer  specimens  of  officers  had  found  their 
way  into  the  army  at  the  end  of  the  war;  fellows  who 
were  fortunate  enough  to  have  an  uncle  in  Congress, 
or  some  other  political  Influence,  and  being  regarded  by 
these  relatives  as  utterly  worthless  for  any  possible 
place  or  position  in  civil  life,  were  gotten  L-eute nancies 
in  the  army,  and  my  regiment  seemed  about  this  time 
to  receive  an  undue  i)roportion  of  them.  It  will  be 
remembered  that  at  this  time  the  regular  army  was 
sixty  thousand  strong,  forty-five  regiments  of  infantry, 
ten  of  cavalry  and  five  of  artillery,  sixty  full  regiments 
in  all — so,  many  vacancies  were  offering  themselves  for 


12  S  FIVE   YEAKS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

political  appointments.  Anj^  newly  joined  officer,  i)re- 
senting  any  i)eciiliaritie8,  was  at  once  nick-named  by 
the  men,  and  such  sobriquet  was  certain  to  stick  to  him 
always.  Thus  we  had  "  California  Jack,"  "  Idaho  Jim,'^ 
"Old  Paddy,"  the  "  Jack-of-Clubs,"  and  last,  but  not 
least,  "  Johnny-Oome-Lately."  Th's  latter  unfortunate 
was  the  worst  specimen  I  had  yet  seen.  I  know  not 
whence  he  came,  but  evidently  from  somewhere  "  out 
west."  He  had  seen  no  service  during  the  war,  but  had 
an  uncle  or  some  one  who  got  him  a  commission.  It 
was  quite  a  usual  thhig  to  send  young  officers  of  this 
kind  on  some  disagreeable  duty  in  order  to  "  break 
them  in,"  and  so  "  Johnny "  was  dispatched  to  San 
Antonio  with  a  large  deta"!  after  a  lot  of  new  horses 
for  the  command.  The  tr'p  down  was  made  all  right. 
Sergeant  Beckel,  an  experienced  man,  was  in  charge, 
and  all  went  well.  On  the  return  trip  many  horses 
died,  and  at  each  death  the  Lieutenant  ordered  the 
Sergeant  to  have  the  hoofs  cut  off  and  thrown  into  a 
wagon.  For  some  days  discipline  prevented  the  Ser- 
geant from  saying  anything,  but  linally,  as  all  the  men 
were  laughuig  about  it,  he  asked  the  officer  what  the 
point  was  about  sawing  off  the  hoofs,  and  what  he  was 
going  to  do  with  them.  "Do  with  them!"  said  this 
brilliant  youth,  "  why,  I  am  going  to  take  them  in  to 
show  the  commanding  officer,  for  how  else  can  I  ac- 
count for  the  lost  animals  ? "  Fresh  youth !  the 
"affidavit  man"  was  an  unknown  quantity  to  him  yet, 
and  the  affidavit  itself  was  a  sealed  book.  But  he 
learned  it  all ;  he  learned,  too,  to  be  a  soldier  all  the 
same,  and  long  years  after  this,  when  he  had  become  a 
Captain  in  the  Sixth,  he  laid  down  his  life  in  a  battle 
with  the  Apaches,  and  his  mutilated  remains  were 
buried  under  the  burning  sands  of  Arizona,  another 
victim  to  our  strange  Indian  policy. 


FIVE    YEARS    A    CAVALRYMAN.  129 

Goiii^-  down  to  Jacksboro  on  some  business  in  the 
course  of  the  winter,  I  fell  in  with  "California  Jack," 
who  was  en  route  from  Fort  Griffin  to  New  Orleans, 
he  having-  been  promoted  First  Lieutenant  of  the  com- 
pany of  our  re^ment  stationed  at  General  Sheridan's 
headquarters  in  that  city.  T  strolled  into  the  solitary 
^*  grocery"  of  the  place,  kei)t  in  an  old  house  on  the 
corner  of  the  square,  one  evening,  and  found  Jack, 
aforesaid,  seated  straddle  of  the  counter,  a  paper  sack 
of  crackers  in  one  hand  and  a  pint  cup  of  "  white-mule  " 
in  the  other,  holding  forth  to  an  admiring  circle  of  cow- 
men and  Quartermaster's  emj)loyes  in  his  usual  strain, 
but  even  exceeding  himself,  as  may  be  judged  by  the 
following  yarn  which  he  related  with  numerous  embel- 
lishments and  illustrations  that  must  be  omitted  here, 
although  I  must  confess  they  added  to  the  impressive- 
ness  of  the  narration.  Eefreshing  himself  with  a  long- 
pull  at  the  tin  cup,  he  began : 

"  In  the  fall  of  18 — ,  sometime  about  the  middle  of 
November,  a  party  consisting  of  myself  and  live  others 
started  on  a  prospecting  trip  in  the  Nevada  mountains, 
expecting  to  be  absent  from  our  camp  not  to  exceed 
ten  or  fifteen  days,  and  provided  ourselves  with  sup- 
plies accordingly.  After  a  few  days  tramp  among  the 
hills  we  arrived  at  the  place  we  intended  to  "  prospect," 
and  took  up  our  quarters  in  an  abandoned  hut  that  had 
probably  been  used  or  occupied  by  a  party  similar  to 
ours.  During  the-  night  a  snow  storm,  so  common  in 
the  mountains  late  in  faU  and  early  in  the  winter,  set 
in,  and  by  morning  it  was  a  foot  and  over  in  depth  and 
still  falling.  During  the  entire  day  it  continued  to 
snow,  every  trace  of  a  trail  or  landmark  Avas  fast  be- 
coming obliterated,  and  by  nightfall  it  was  four  feet 
deep  on  a  level,  and  no  sign  of  the  storm  abating.  In 
the    course   of  the   night,  or  toward   day,  the   storm 

5* 


130  FIVE   YEARS  A   CAVALRYMAN. 

ceased,  but  here  we  were,  snow  from  six  to  ten  feet 
dee])  on  a  level,  and,  sure  enough,  the  winter  of  the 
mountains  was  ui)on  us ;  no  landmark,  no  trail,  nothing 
visible  to  break  the  monotony  of  the  wide  and  unend- 
ing vista,  nothing  to  guide  us,  and  no  possible  way  out 
if  we  had  had  a  dozen  guides !  "  Here  Jack  took  a 
refreshing  pull  at  the  "  white-mule,"  and  proceeded : 
''  One  thing  was  in  our  favor — the  mountains  were 
heavily  covered  with  scrub  timber,  mostly  oak,  and  so 
we  had  an  abundance  of  fuel,  which  we  gathered  by 
breaking  off  the  tops  of  tJie  trees  which  were  visible  above 
the  snore  !  Day  after  day  dragged  along,  during  which 
an  additional  fall  of  snow  rendered  our  situation  still 
more  desperate  ;  our  i)ro visions  were  nearly  exhausted, 
although  at  the  start  I  had  taken  charge  of  them  and 
eked  out  the  supply  by  reducing  to  a  minimum  the 
daily  allowance  to  each  one.  Finally,  one  morning,  our 
scanty  breakfast  consumed,  the  last  morsel  of  food 
was  gone ;  no  game,  not  even  one  little  snowbird,  no 
living  thing  in  sight,  no  one  dared  to  venture  on  the 
slightly  frozen  snow  to  attempt  an  escai)e,  and  we  looked 
on  each  other  as  starving  men  only  can  look  in  each 
other's  eyes. 

"  Feeling  myself  to  be  the  master  si)irit  of  the  party, 
I  sat  before  the  fire  in  gloomy  dejection,  trying  by 
every  effort  of  thought  to  see  our  way  out  of  the  dread- 
ful situation  we  were  in.  It  came  to  me  like  a  revela- 
tion !  I  sprang  to  my  feet  and  shouted :  *  Every  man 
get  his  blanket  and  get  out  on  the  frozen  snow  and 
gather  acorns.'  'Acorns ! '  they  repeated,  and  looked 
at  me  to  see  whether  long  fasting  had  not  unhinged  my 
mind,  but  I  supi)Ose  my  looks  reassured  them,  and  out 
we  all  went  and  fell  to  gathering  acorns  as  if  our  lives 
depended  on  it,  and  ceased  not  until  bushels  had  been 
collected  and  piled  up  in  a  corner  of  the  hut.     No  one 


FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  131 

had  questioned  me ;  each  one  had  seemed  to  tacitly 
admit  the  fertility  of  my  resources,  but  the  dinner  hour 
had  come  and  gone,  there  was  not  a  mouthful  of  food 
visible,  and  my  comrades  lay  around  the  floor  dejected 
and  gloomy,  no  i)rospect  outdoors  but  the  wintry 
waste,  stretching  in  its  wide  solitude  until  sky  and 
landscape  blended  at  the  horizon,  none  indoors  but  the 
huge  pile  of  acorns.  All  this  time  I  was  quietly  dry- 
hig  and  parching  acorns  before  the  fire,  and  when  I  had 
so  prepared  a  considerable  quantity  of  them  I  ground 
them  in  the  coffee-mill,  made  them  into  biscuits,  we  fell 
to  and  ate,  and  our  lives  were  spared.  And,  gentlemen, 
to  make  a  long  story  short,  we  remained  in  that  hut 
until  the  26th  day  of  March  following,  and  I'm  the 
biggest  liar  on  earth  if  I  didn't  gain  twenty-three  pounds 
in  iceight  that  u inter ! " 

Here  Jack  finished  his  "white-mule,"  got  down  off 
the  counter,  and  with  his  sabre  clanking  behind  him, 
stalked  out,  leaving  his  audience  speechless. 


132  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 


CHAPTER  XX. 


CAMP  DOGS — CHRISTMAS  —  PRIVATE  BLOW  OF  THE 
V.  S.  A.  —  THE  "BURNSIDE" — LAST  NIGHT  AT 
BUFFALO    SPRINGS. 

One  of  tlie  soldier's  predilections  is  his  love  for 
dogs,  and  bis  propensity  for  them  was  such  that  every 
detail  returning  from  the  settlements  was  accompanied 
by  a  new  lot  of  curs  that  they  had  inihtced  to  come  with 
them.     Our  regiment  was  always  overrun  with  dogs — 

"Mougrel,  puppy,  wholp,  and  hound, 
And  ciirs  of  low  degree, ' ' 

some  valuable  greyhounds  among  them,  but  mostly  of 
the  "  yaller  dog  "  species.  At  the  sound  of  the  bugle 
every  dog  would  set  up  a  howl,  until  at  times  the 
nuisance  would  become  epidemic,  as  it  were,  and  a 
special  order  be  issued  to  exterminate  all  those  running- 
loose  on  the  parade  ground.  Our  company  had  a  big, 
hairy,  nondescrii)t  dog  that  "joined"  at  Jacksboro  in 
1808,  and  attached  himself  to  the  guard-house,  and 
notliing  could  induce  him  to  visit  other  parts  of  the 
garrison,  except  when  he  sometimes  accompanied  the 
guard  on  its  rounds.  The  guards  and  prisoners  shared 
their  food  with  him  ;  he  tramped  along  with  the  guard 
to  Kansas  when  the  regiment  was  moAed  there  in  1871, 
and  I  last  saw  him  at  Fort  Hays  in  the  fall  of  that  year, 
growing  old  "in  the  service." 


FIVE   YEARS    A    CAVALRYMAN.  133 

The  approach  of  the  Christmas  holidays,  1867,  seemed 
1o  iuHuence  the  soldiers,  and  some  i)reparatioii8  were 
made  by  the  3  ouiiger  men  to  celebrate  the  oc(jasiou  as 
best  they  could.  I  suppose  there  is  no  man — no  matter 
how  degraded  or  demoralized,  no  matter  where  he  is, 
nor  what  his  surroiindini^s  may  be,  if  he  can  look  back 
at  all  on  his  childhood  days  with  any  degree  of 
pleasure — but  who  is  more  or  less  susceptible  to  the 
peculiar  influences  and  memories  of  the  Christmas-tide. 
Some  of  my  men  possessed  a  considerable  degree  of 
musical  talent ;  in  fact,  I  had  three  or  four  good 
musicians  in  my  company,  and  these  and  some  others 
formed  a  minstrel  troupe,  and  with  the  aid  of  two 
violins,  guitar,  flute  and  banjo,  made  really  good  music. 
A  vacant  forage  room  was  fltted  up  with  a  stage  and 
seats,  and  on  Christmas  eve  they  gave  an  entertain- 
ment which  was  patronized  by  the  whole  garrison,  from 
commanding  ofticer  to  company  cook.  One  Myers,  a 
bugler  in  my  company,  and  the  life  of  the  camj),  brought 
down  the  house  by  singing  the  following  original  ode, 
written  for  him  by  myself  and  set  to  the  then  i)opular 
air  of  ''  Captain  Jinks." 

I'm  Private  Blow  of  the  U.S.A., 
At  first  Bull  Run  I  ran  away; 
K  I'd  been  killed  that  fatal  day, 

I  wouldn't  be  now  in  the  army. 
Of  course  I  don't  exjtect  to  fight, 
Want  to  fight,  have  to  fight: 
Of  course  I  neither  drill  nor  fight, 

While  I'm  in  the  regular  army. 

Sjyolen  :  Xo,  my  friends,  you  see  I  have  so  many 
other  things  to  do,  such  as  elevating  the  condition  of 
the  nigger,  building  ofticer s'  quarters,  etc.,  that  I  shall 
do  but  mighty  little  fighting. 

Chorus — For  I'm  Private  Blow  of  the  U.  S.  A. ; 
Of  course  I  live  beyond  my  pay, 
Por  high  and  low  that  is  the  way 
We  do  in  the  regular  army. 


134  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

At  first  they  sent  me  to  Carlisle, 
Tliey  kept  me  there  a  little  while; 
Since  then  I've  footed  many  a  mile, 

A  recruit  in  this  regular  army. 
I  thought,  of  course,  I'd  have  a  horse, 
Eide  a  horse,  an  army  horse; 
I  thought  a  trooper  had  a  horse. 

To  carry  him  through  the  army. 

Stolen  :  But  then,  you  see,  I  8ui)i)0se  they  thought 
I  couldn't  ride ;  at  any  rate,  I've  had  to  walk  so  far  in 
my  cavalry  service,  for 

Chorus — I'm  Private  Blow,  etc. 

You  ought  to  see  the  coat  I  wear, 
And,  then,  the  troiisers,  such  a  pair! 
There's  no  such  uniform,  I  swear. 

In  any  decent  army. 
I'll  quit  the  '  'wearing  of  the  blue, ' ' 
Army  blue ,  or  any  blue ; 
I'll  quit  the  '  'wearing  of  the  blue, ' ' 
When  I  get  out  of  the  army. 

Spolen  :  Yes,  my  boy,  if  any  over-solicitous  tailor  or 
shopkeeper  ever  says  to  me,  "  Oh !  Mr.  Blow,  let  me 
sell  you  this  blue  coat,"  I'll  knock  him  over,  and  then 
explain  my  prejudice  against  blue,  for 

Chorus — I'm  Private  Blow,  etc. 

My  sutler's  bills  come  in  so  fast, 
I  fear  I'll  have  to  leave  at  last; 
Mj'  credit  days  will  then  be  past , 

When  I  get  out  of  the  army. 
If  Congress  would  but  pass  the  bill, 
Butler's  bill,  the  army  bill; 
If  Congress  would  but  pass  that  bill, 

Then  I'll  get  out  of  the  army. 

Spolxen :  And  oh !  Congress !  your  petitioners  will 
ever  pray,  etc.,  for 

Choi-us — I'm  Private  Blow,  etc. 

The  Major  (my  Captain)  had  for  some  time  been 
looking  for  a  furlough,  and  soon  after  the  new  year  it 
came,  and  he  proceeded  to  Jefferson  on  the  Red  river, 
then  our  nearest  starting  point,  accompanied  by  his 
wife,  a  most  excellent  and  estimable  lady.  I  was  sorry 
to  part  with  him,  and,  besides,  his  leaving  necessitated 


FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  135 

the  "turning'  over"  of  all  the  property  of  the  coiHi)any 
to  his  successor.  When  I  took  charge  of  tlie  company 
I  found  the  Major  carrying  on  his  ordnance  pa])ers  one 
Burnside  carbine,  which  he  had  been  accountable  for 
when  in  "the  valley"  with  Sheridan,  in  1S04,  bat  which 
neither  he  nor  anyone  present  had  seen  for  years.  An 
arm  of  any  kind  is  harder  to  "drop"  or  "account  for" 
than  any  other  kind  of  property,  and  so  it  had  been 
carried  along  for  years  as  "  on  hand."  Not  long  before 
this  a  batch  of  recruits  had  been  received  (a  i)arty  of 
recruits  is  alwaj^s  called  a  "batch"),  one  of  whom  had 
deserted  soon  after  his  arrival  at  the  post,  and  as  he 
took  no  arms  with  him,  of  course  I  charged  him  up 
with  the  old  "  Burnsides."  Looking  over  the  invoices 
and  receipts  I  had  made  out  for  him  and  his  successor 
to  sign,  he  noticed  that  the  old  carbine  was  omitted, 
and  he  remarked  that  perhaps  I  had  forgotten  it.  "  No, 
sir,"  I  said,  "  it  can't  be  found,  and  supposing  the  recruit 
who  'jumjjed'  had  taken  it,  he  not  knowing  its  worth- 
lessness,  I  charged  it  to  him."  "  Oh  !  "  said  the  Major, 
with  a  complicated  wink,  "  I'm  glad  he  didn't  take  a 
Spencer."  A  deserter  often  proves  a  godsend  to  a 
company  commander,  who  is  enabled  to  get  even  on 
articles  he  is  short  of,  by  charging  them  to  a  deserter, 
for,  even  if  the  deserter  is  apprehended  and  brought 
back,  he  has  placed  himself  in  so  bad  a  fix  by  his  crime 
that  the  "  affidavit  man's "  testimony  cannot  be  im- 
peached, and  the  company  papers  are  "  cleared  "  of  a 
lot  of  old  stuff. 

As  heretofore  stated,  Buffalo  Springs  had  been 
"  condemned  "  by  an  inspecting  board,  and  part  of  our 
command  had  gone  to  Jacksboro,  and,  the  winter  hav- 
ing about  ended,  early  in  March  our  company  received 
orders  to  report  to  the  latter  place,  the  construction  of 
the  military  post  there  having  gotten  well  under  way. 


13G  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

The  amount  of  property  or  "  i)luiicler  "  that  accumu- 
lates in  a  military  camp  in  time  of  i)eace  is  something- 
wonderful  to  one  who  is  only  accustomed  to  the  belong- 
ings of  troops  in  "  war  times,"  when  everything  is  re- 
duced to  a  minimum,  and  baggage,  clothing,  everything- 
but  arms  and  ammunition,  is  at  times  thrown  away. 
Besides  the  various  articles  of  ordnance,  tents,  mess 
equipage  and  rations,  every  soldier  accumulates  a  com- 
l)lete  domestic  establishment,  including  household  pets, 
such  as  cats,  prairie  dogs,  squirrels,  and  the  inevitable 
dog. 

One  of  the  customs  of  the  service  was  not  to  provide 
good  transportation,  but  for  the  commanding  officer 
to  hire  some  citizen  hanger-on  of  the  camp  to  furnish 
teams,  for  which  he  was  often  paid  an  exorbitant  price. 
The  chance  to  move  a  few  troops  from  one  post  to 
another  was,  in  the  language  of  a  lamented  citizen, 
"  oil,"  for  it  enabled  the  "  contractor,"  he  not  possessing 
teams  of  his  own,  to  hire  all  the  broken-down  "layouts" 
in  the  vicinity,  such  as  were  furnished  upon  this  occa- 
sion. However,  we  loaded  up  and  completed  our 
labors,  and  prepared  to  pass  our  last  night  in  Buffalo 
Springs  in  the  midst  of  a  pouring  rain — but  when  did 
a  command  ever  move  that  it  didn't  rain? 

It  is  one  of  the  curious  phases  of  a  life  so  vagrant 
and  constant  in  its  changes  as  the  army,  where  our 
home,  so  to  speak,  is  often  moved,  that  the  adaptpcbility 
of  the  mind  to  circumstances  can  so  soon  and  so  easily 
accommodate  itself,  and  become  attached  to  any  given 
locality.  Now,  the  bare  and  homely  hut  that  I  was 
about  to  leave,  though  rough  and  uncouth  in  its  sur- 
roundings, had  been  for  nearly  a  year  my  home  ;  within 
it  I  had  performed  my  duties,  and,  when  temi)orarily 
absent,  looked  back  on  it  as  the  central  point  around 
which  for  a  time  1  revolved.     I  do  not  mean  that  our 


FIVE    YEARS    A    CAVALRYMAN.  137 

real  home — sacred  word ! — can  be  so  easily  shifted  from 
place  to  ])lace,  as  we  float  along- life's  current — far  from 
it ! — but  that  man,  essentially  «regarious  in  all  his  habits 
and  instincts,  does  of  a  necessity  allow  his  feelings  to 
become  more  or  less  interested  in  and  attached  to 
everything  and  everybody  to  some  degree  with  whom 
he  is  constantly  associated  in  common  duties,  and  thus 
even  his  temporary  companions,  both  animate  and  in- 
animate, become,  as  it  were,  so  many  threads  woven 
into  his  strangely  constituted  web  of  life. 


138  FIVE   YEAES   A   CAVALRYMAN. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 


ON  THE  ROAD  IN  THE  RAIN — SWIMMING  A  CREEK — THE- 
WAGON  STARTS  FOR  THE  GULF — THE  LAUNDRESS^ 
PERIL  —  REAL  AND  IDEAL  SOLDIERING  —  BACK  AT' 
JACKSBORO. 

The  morning  of  Marcli  10th  dawned  as  gloomily  and 
disagxeeably  as  possible;  the  rain  came  down  in  tor- 
rents, but  "  orders  are  orders,"  and  hot  coffee  having 
been  served,  "  boots  and  saddles "  was  sounded,  and 
the  train,  with  the  dismounted  men,  some  twenty  in 
number,  rolled  out  in  advance.  Our  march  proceeded 
withont  any  incident,  the  rain  pouring  down,  each 
man  with  his  overcoat  cape  drawn  over  his  head  to 
keep  as  dry  as  possible,  the  Lieutenant  and  myself  at 
the  head  of  the  column,  at  times  privately,  or  at  least 
exclusively,  refreshing  ourselves  from  a  "  vial "  judi- 
ciously fnrnished  by  the  post  surgeon  before  we 
started. 

About  ten  miles  south  of  Buffalo  Springs  our  road 
crossed  a  stream  called  "Crooked  Creek,"  usually  a. 
deep,  dry  ravine,  but  now  swollen  into  a  roaring  torrent 
of  twenty  yards  in  width,  and  unknown  dei)th  in  the 
middle.  A  council  was  held,  and  I  gave  my  opinion 
against  attempting  to  cross,  ha\ing  heretofore  had  some 
experience  in  these  "  wet  weather "  creeks,  and  pro- 
posed that  the  wagons  be  left  in  charge  of  a  detail  and 


FIVE    YEAES   A    CAVALRYMAN.  139 

of  the  dismounted  men,  and  the  rest  of  the  command 
3)ush  on  to  Jacksboro,  the  waoons  to  proceed  later. 
The  Lieutenant,  however,  was  of  the  opinion  that  the 
team  loaded  with  his  personal  effects  could  cross  with 
safety,  as  it  was  a  six-mule  government  wagon,  and  he 
ordered  the  others  to  go  into  camp.  I  felt  pretty  cer- 
tain that  as  soon  as  the  mules  were  off  their  feet  they 
would  not  be  able  to  pull  the  wagon,  and,  furthermore, 
that  the  wagon  body  would  be  apt  to  float  and  the  run- 
iiing  gear  sink,  but  having  nothing  further  to  say,  I 
plunged  in  and  swam  the  stream,  followed  by  the  com- 
mand. As  expected,  the  team  no  sooner  got  well  into 
the  stream  than  they  lost  their  footing,  the  buoyancy 
of  the  wagon  body,  tilled  with  a  light  load  of  household 
goods,  floated  it  off'  down  stream,  and  the  mules  strug- 
gled out,  dragging  the  front  wheels  ])ehind  them,  while 
the  wagon  slowly  floated  off,  gradually  settling  deeper 
each  minute  in  the  water. 

At  this  moment  a  series  of  unearthly  howls  had 
l3egun  to  i)roceed  from  the  wagon,  and  it  was  then 
remembered  that  Lucy,  one  of  the  colored  laundresses 
of  the  company,  was  in  the  wagon,  stowed  away  some- 
where on  toj)  of  the  load,  up  under  the  bows.  The 
wagon  had  now  become  water-logged  and  had  settled 
until  not  over  a  foot  of  the  cover  was  out  of  the  water, 
and  the  heartrending  and  earpiercing  yells  of  Lucy 
filled  the  air.  Her  position  up  to  this  point  had  been 
regarded  as  a  joke,  but  it  had  now  become  serious ; 
the  wagon  sheet  was  securely  tied  down  at  both  ends, 
and  but  a  few  inches  of  air  space  remained.  One  of 
the  men  now  threw  off  his  coat  and  boots,  and  with  a 
knife  between  his  teeth  swam  out  to  the  wagon,  his 
added  weight,  as  he  scrambled  u})on  it,  just  about  sink- 
ing it,  but  he  quickly  ripped  the  sheet  open  with  his 
kuife,  and  Lucy's  black  head  popped  out  in  the  most 


140  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

ludicrous  manner.  The  boys  ran  down  the  bank  and 
threw  a  lariat  to  the  wagon ;  this  was  fastened  around 
the  woman,  under  her  arms,  and  she  was  told  to  jump 
for  her  life,  which  she  did.  The  boys  hauled  on  the 
roi)e,  and  in  their  zeal  pulled  her  under;  then  she 
would  arise  spluttering  and  yelling  (I  often  thhik  of  it 
as  the  funniest  sight  I  ever  saw),  but  she  was  finally 
landed,  and  really  had  a  narrow  escape.  By  this  time 
it  was  necessary  to  turn  attention  to  the  L^'eutenant's 
property,  which  had  become  liberated  from  the  wagon 
after  the  cover  was  ripped,  and  was  now  on  its  way  to 
the  gulf — trunks,  boots,  desk,  wardrobe,  cha-rs  and 
table,  all  floating  gaUy  down  the  swollen  stream.  The 
men  eventually  rescued  everything  except  a  box  con- 
taining some  puppies,  the  latter  having  found  a  watery 
grave  early  in  the  action.  The  trunks  and  boxes  were 
all  soaked  and  their  contents  pretty  much  ruined,  but 
the  Lieutenant  took  it  in  good  ])art  and  rewarded  the 
men  liberally;  leaving  a  Sergeant  in  charge  of  his 
effects,  we  pushed  on,  having  lost  a  couple  of  hours 
by  our  mishap,  reaching  the  West  Fork  about  four  in 
the  afternoon. 

At  this  point  a  temporary  bridge  had  been  built  by 
the  troops  in  the  summer  previous,  and  where  the 
Indians  had  killed  the  teamster,  as  related  in  a  pre- 
ced'ng  chapter,  but  now  several  inches  of  water  was 
running  over  it,  and  the  bottom  looked  like  an  inland 
sea,  and  we  about  concluded  to  camp.  On  investiga- 
tion, however,  we  found  our  matches  had  all  been 
soaked  and  thus,  rejidered  useless ;  our  rations  were 
back  with  the  wagons,  so  we  concluded  to  risk  the 
bridge  and  all  crossed  safely,  although  six  inches  of 
water  was  running  on  it  at  the  time. 

For  a  mile  on  the  south  side  of  the  river  it  was  knee- 
deep  in  water,  and  we  occasionally  stumbled  into  holes 


FIVE    YEARS    A    OAVALRYMAN.  141 

a  ^00(1  deal  deeper,  but  we  |)lodded  on,  wet  tlirou<;li, 
aud  the  elilll  Marcli  wind  beeoming  very  cold  toward 
nightfall.  These  kind  of  experiences  are  so  common 
that  they  might  hardly  be  considered  worth  narrating, 
but  as  "  trifles  make  up  the  sum  of  human  ha])piness," 
so  it  may  be  said  that  "  sinall  discomforts  make  up  the 
sum  of  army  misery,''  and  therefore  must  be  recorded 
to  complete  a  true  sketch  of  the  "lights  and  shadows-' 
of  army  life  as  I  saw  it. 

Lieutenant  Borthwick,  now  deceased,  who  was  in 
command  on  this  trip,  had  not  been  long  with  the 
regiment,  and  he  was  already  badly  (Usgusted  with 
army  life.  He  had  been  appo'nted  from  civil  life,  and, 
I  think,  had  formed  his  ideas  of  the  army  and  of  army 
life  from  reading  the  rose-colored  romances  of  ''  Ouida" 
an<J  others  of  that  ilk,  and  from  his  acquaintance  with 
the  biilliantly  uniformed  and  aristocratic  ''  city  trooj)  " 
of  Philadelphia,  many  of  the  members  of  which  were 
his  personal  friends.  As  we  rode  along  on  this  occasion 
he  said : 

"  I  imagined  from  transient  intercourse  with  army 
officers  .  I  had  met  at  my  father's  house  that  the 
gTeat  majority  of  them  were  gentlemen,  and  that  I 
should  enjoy  the  life  very  much — find  it  a  kind  of  ])ic- 
nic,  as  it  were;  but  the  real  cond'tion  of  thhigs  have 
about  given  me  'my  till'  already.  The  utter  selflsh- 
ness,  and  oftentimes  brutality,  on  the  part  of  superiors, 
and  the  cringing  and  lack  of  spirit  shown  by  subordin- 
ates,-and,  worse  than  all,  the  frequent  absence  of  all 
principles  of  honor,  which  latter  at  least  I  expected  to 
find  as  the  rule,  have  disgusted  me."  Poor  fellow  !  an 
accident  a  couple  of  years  afterward,  from  which  he 
never  recovered,  shortened  his  life. 

Mght  had  fallen  as  we  marched  through  the  village 
of  Jacksboro,  but  the  place  already  showed  signs  of 


142  FIVE   YEARS   A   CAVAXKYMAN. 

having  received  an  impetus  ("boom"  was  unknown 
then)  since  the  permanency  of  the  military  post  had 
been  assured,  and  the  increased  number  of  "groceries" 
bore  evidence  of  the  "  enlightened "  tastes  of  the 
augmented  i)opulation. 

The  temporary  camp  lay  about  half  a  mile  west  of 
the  village,  on  the  left  bank  of  Lost  creek,  and  we  rode 
into  it  as  wet,  cold  and  hungry  a  troop  as  could  be 
imagined.  Having  no  rations  or  camp  equipage  with 
us,  we  divided  ourselves  around  among  the  other  com- 
panies, who  were  quartered  in  comfortable  temporary 
barracks.  In  the  army,  as  elsewhere,  coui^tesy  and 
hospitality  are  often  in  inverse  ratio  to  the  means  of 
extending  them,  and  we  were  soon  made  as  comfortable 
as  possible,  our  friends  placing  dry  clothing  and  a  good 
supper  at  our  disposal,  under  the  influence  of  which 
our  fatigue  was  soon  forgotten. 

The  site  of  our  camp  was  a  very  judicious  one,  being 
on  a  hill,  well  drained,  and  in  close  proximity  to  the 
water,  the  creek  dividing  our  present  location  from 
the  "  reservation "  that  had  been  selected,  and  which 
embraced  about  eight  hundred  acres,  all  lying  on  the 
south  or  right  bank  of  Lost  creek. 

The  construction  of  the  new  post  was  well  under 
way  and  was  in  charge  of  a  regular  (staff)  Quarter- 
master, Oai)tain  Poster,  who  was  represented  by  a 
civilian  agent,  one  Captain  Moore,  an  elegant  and 
agreeable  gentleman,  who,  if  he  is  still  "  extant,"  and 
his  eye  should  by  any  chance  see  these  i)ages,  will 
observe  that  he  is  kindly  remembered  by  the  writer. 
And  then  one  Starkweather,  the  chief  clerk !  ^ever 
*'  shall  we  look  upon  his  like  again."  Gulliver,  Mun- 
chausen, and  even  the  lamented  Ahrberg,  all  sink  into 
insignificance  as  colossal  romancers  when  compared 
with  this  gentleman.     He  claimed  to  have  spent  many 


FIVE  YEARS    A   CAVALRYMAN.  143 

years  on  "the  Slope,"  and  I  have  noticed  that  any 
l)rolonj>ed  residence  in  that  jijolden  clime  seems  to 
in\igorate  the  imagination  and  to  create  a  tendency  to 
"  enlarge  "—look  at  everything  through  a  magnifying 
glass,  so  to  speak. 


144  FIVE    YEARS   A   CAVALRYMAN. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 


THE  NEW  POST — ST.  PATRICK'S  DAY — "nO  SUNDAY 
UNTIL  FURTHER  ORDERS" — OLD  PADDY  ONCE 
MORE — COOKING  IN  A  WOODEN  PAIL — THE  UN- 
WOUND COMPASS  —  SOME  NEW  ZOOLOGY  —  THE 
"brevet" — AN  EMPTY  HONOR. 

We  at  once  commenced  erecting  our  temporary 
barracks,  for  it  was  not  thonglit  the  post  would  be 
ready  for  occupancy  before  fall,  but  owing  to  tbe 
scarcity  of  material  of  all  kinds,  as  A\"ell  as  the  inferior 
quality  of  the  "  rawhide  "  lumber  furnished,  they  were, 
when  finished,  neither  elegant  nor  waterproof. 

Just  at  this  time  my  duties  were  exceedingly  arduous, 
for  the  Lieutenant,  with  twenty-five  of  the  most  efiicient 
men  of  the  company,  had  been  gent  on  a  scout  soon 
after  oar  arrival  at  the  camp,  and,  there  being  no  com- 
missioned officer  present,  I  had  the  whole  charge. 
The  company  Quartermaster  Sergeant,  who  had  been 
left  back  at  Buffalo  Springs  with  the  surplus  i)ro])erty 
for  which  we  had  no  transportation,  arrived,  and  at 
once  fell  a  victim  to  the  seductions  of  Jacksboro 
whiskey,  and  was  in  close  arrest,  and,  to  cap  all,  the 
paymaster  arrived  on  the  eve  of  St.  Patrick's  day  and 
at  once  ])aid  off. 

The  anniversary  of  Ireland's  patron  saint  was  duly 
observed  by   the  men,  regardless    of  nationality ;   in 


FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  145 

fact,  I  now  remember  that  two  or  three  of  the  Germans 
in  tlie  command  were  the  most  enthusiastic  celebrants 
of  the  occasion,  and  about  a  dozen  of  my  men  landed 
in  the  ouard-house,  leavini>-  me  with  a  handful  for  duty, 
the  bairacky  not  yet  roofed  in.  a  rahmtorm  in  full  blast, 
with  no  other  shelter  than  some  old  rotten  tents  and 
])aul'n8. 

1  had  long  since  learned  that  there  was  "no  Sunday 
in  the  army,''  properly  speaking,  but  a  certain  amount 
of  observance  was  given  to  the  day,  such  as  an  absenc^e 
of  "fatigue  duty,'*  and  of  unnecessary  military  duly, 
but  our  })ost  commander  for  the  time  being  was  a  cer- 
tain Captain  of  the  regiment,  who  was  so  very  zealous, 
or  "  nrilitary,"  as  the  boys  called  it,  that  he  actually 
issued  an  order  that  "  Sunday  will  not  be  observed  at 
this  ])ost  tmtil  further  orders,  and  all  detail  for  fatigue 
will  be  made  as  usual." 

"  Old  Paddy,'-  the  traditional  bugbear  of  the  regiment, 
had  never  even  gone  th's  far,  and  his  arrival  at  the  post 
with  two  com])anie8  of  the  regiment  was  haUed  with 
delight.  The  command  was  now  increased  to  six  com- 
panies, aggregating  about  live  hundred  men.  The  old 
gentleman  seemed  to  be  in  full  possession  of  all  his 
old-time  ])ecurarit'es;  time,  instead  of  softening  them, 
seemed  to  render  them  more  striking.  I  had  occasion 
one  day  to  go  to  his  quarters  for  the  purpose  of  hand- 
ing' him  the  ''  descriptive  list "  of  a  man  of  my  company 
who  was  about  to  be  sent  to  the  Ship  Island  military 
prison.  Looking  it  over,  he"  pushed  it  toward  me, 
saying:  "Trke  it  away,  sir  I  It  is  not  properly  made 
out."  Knowing  that  it  was,  I  replied  :  "  In  what  par- 
ticular, sir,  ^fe  it  incorrect  f  "  "  Go  and  inform  yourself, 
s'r  !  "  he  shouted,  and  I  left.  On  reaching  my  room  I 
found  it  was' all  straight,  and  marched  back  with  it. 
He   scrutinized  it    minutely,  could   find  no  foult,  and 


;;i;?->^        «^'V»t,   .;     •  "■  '     -.-'>!: 


146  FIVE   YEARS  A   CAVALRYMAN. 

motioned  me  to  leave.  No  sooner  was  I  outside  the 
tent  than  he  called  me  back,  and  pointing-  to  a  certain 
place  with  his  finger,  said ;  "  Put  a  comma  there,  sir, — 
now  go  ! "  Such  was  the  old  fellow — captious,  queru- 
lous and  "  cranky,"  and  while  I  cannot,  even  now  that 
time  has  softened  his  roughness,  as  distance  and  years 
have  i)assed  away,  say  that  "  with  all  his  faults "  I 
learned  to  "love"  him,  yet  I  surely  learned  to  respect 
his  integrity  and  his  honor  in  even  the  most  trifling 
matters.  And  when  soon  after  this  he  went  on  the 
"retired  list" — that  " bourne  from  which  no  old  soldier 
e'er  returns  " — and  was  succeeded  by  another  officer 
of  the  regiment,  then  every  man  in  it  felt  the  loss  of 
"  Old  Paddy,"  and  I  doubt  not  that  traditions  of  the 
old  fellow  linger  yet  around  the  camp-tires  of  the 
"  Sixth,"  handed  down  by  one  soldier  to  the  other. 

An  amusing  character  in  my  company  at  this  time 
was  a  man  named  Walsh,  who  joined  when  I  did  ;  a  tall, 
ungainly  fellow,  who  had  been  promoted  to  Sergeant, 
owing  to  his  one  good  trait,  sobriety,  a  quality  more 
appreciated  in  the  army  than  in  civil  life,  i)erhaps, 
owing  to  its  rarity.  He  was  an  angular,  awkward  fel- 
low, over  six  feet,  and  one  of  the  men  remarked  of  him 
that  "  a  plumb  dropped  from  his  head  would  hit  him  in 
forty  places  before  it  struck  the  gTound."  He  was 
very  ignorant,  and  of  course  very  conceited,  but  his 
sobriety  made  up  for  a  host  of  shortcomings,  and  he 
was  reliable  so  far  as  he  knew  how  to  be.  On  duty  he 
was  very  "  military,"  off  duty  he  was  the  butt  of  the 
company,  most  of  the  time  without  ever  discovering  it. 
He  had  accom])anied  the  Lieutenant  on  the  scouting^ 
expedition  before  referred  to,  and  was  left  in  charge 
of  a  kind  of  depot  of  8upi)lies,  to  which  details  from 
the  main  party  would  return  from  time  to  time  for 
rations.     One  day  a  rabbit  was  killed,  but  no  suitable 


FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  147 

vessel  was  at  hand  in  which  to  cook  it,  until  the  brilliant 
idea  occurred  to  the  Serjeant  that  a  wooden  pail  would 
do,  the  process  of  reasoning  which  led  to  the  attempt 
being  something  like  this:  "A  wooden  vessel  tilled 
with  water  cannot  burn — a  wooden  vessel  tilled  with 
water  and  placed  on  a  tire — ^the  water  will  boil,  ergo, 
the  rabbit  can  be  cooked."  The  exi)eriment  was  not 
a  success,  but  the  story  is  literally  true. 

On  this  trip  he  was  sent  out  with  a  small  detail  to 
make  a  reconnaissance,  and  was  provided  with  a  pocket 
compass,  an  indispensable  instrument  in  the  wilderness. 
The  men  soon  began  to  fear  that,  notwithstanding  his 
frequent  observations  of  the  compass,  from  the  erratic 
course  they  were  pursuing  he  was  getting  lost,  and  it 
was  tinally  suggested  to  him  that  they  were  surely  gone 
astray  and  deviating  from  the  proper  course.  Upon 
this  he  again  consulted  it,  turned  it,  sbook  it  up,  twisted 
it,  and  then  gravel}'  remarked  that  ''the  hand  was 
loose,  and  he  couldn't  wind  the  durned  thing  up,  as 
they  hadn't  given  him  the  key."  He  tinally  fastened 
the  needle  down,  pointing  to  the  letters  E.  N.  E.,  the 
desired  course,  and  providentiaUy  the  party  got  back 
without  the  aid  of  the  instrument. 

Walsh's  orthograi)hy  as  well  as  chirography  was 
fearful,  but  he  seemed  to  have  an  unlimited  correspond- 
ence, and  spent  most  of  his  leisure  in  camj)  writing  to 
his  friends  at  home.  A  fragment  of  one  of  his  letters 
was  found  one  day  floating  around  the  quarters,  from 
which  it  seemed  he  was  endeavoring  to  convey  some 
idea  of  the  zoology  of  the  country  as  well  as  a  descrip- 
tion of  the  various  grades  of  rank  in  the  service.  It 
read:  "Yes,  dear  Mary,  there's  wild  beasts,  captains, 
centipedes,  lieutenants,  sergeants  and  corporals,  and 
thanks  be  to  God !  I'm  a  sergeant." 

One  of  the  absurdities  of  the  service  at  the  time  I 


148  FIVE    YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN: 

am  writing  of  was  the  system  of  "brevets,"  a  cheap 
kind  of  honor  with  which  the  government  rewarded 
multitudes  of  officers  during  the  war.  "  Old  Paddy  " 
was  a  Major  of  our  regiment  (cavalry  regiments  have 
three  Majors),  but  was  a  "brevet"  Colonel.  Major 
Morris,  also  a  Major  of  the  regiment,  and  as  such  rank- 
ing Colonel  Starr,  was  a  brevet  Lieutenant  ColoneL 
One  of  the  Captains  of  the  regiment  was  a  brevet 
Major  General,  and  one  of  the  Lieutenants  was  a  brevet 
Brigadier. 

These  brevets  were  bestowed  (nominally)  for  merito- 
rious services,  and  about  the  only  substantial  honor  to 
be  derived  from  them  was  that  the  wearer  was  entitled 
to  sit  on  a  courtmart'al  in  the  full  capacity  represented 
by  his  brevet  rank,  and  to  wear  the  shoulder  straps  of 
the  rank. 

Wh'le  at  Fort  Richardson,  Colonel  Starr  received 
an  official  notice  that  Congress  had  made  him  a  brevet 
Brigadier  General.  He  ordered  the  Adjutant  to  "  send 
it  back,  s'r!  Tell  them  I  have  already  one  empty  coat 
sleeve  and  one  empty  brevet  rank,  and  don't  want  any 
more  empty  honors,  sh' !  " 

Some  years  after  this  time,  the  foolish  thing  was  in 
some  degTee  abated,  by  order  of  the  War  Department, 
and  regulations  were  introduced  linnting  the  uses  and 
privileges  of  the  brevet.  One  of  General  Hatch's 
subordinates,  iiot  uiidergtainclin^'  fully  the  design  of  the 
order,  asked  Mm  how  he  (the  General)  was  to  be  ad- 
dressed in  the  future.  ."  Sir,"  said  the  G^peral  (a  full 
Colonel  of  (Cavalry),.  "  i/you  address  me  officiaUy  by  my 
brevet  rank  I  shall  prefer  charges  against  you,  but  if 
you  presume  to  address  me  .sociidli/  or  perHonaUy  icithont 
using  it,  I'll  put  a  head  on  you." 

This  was  a  common-sense  solution  of  the  matter,  but 
at  the  close  of  the  war,  and  for  years  afterward,  it  was 


FIVE   YEARS    A    CAVALRYMAN.  149 

a  (•oiiinulruin  as  to  who  or  where  or  what  had  beeome 
of  the  privates  of  the  late  war.  Down  tliia  way  I  never 
met  anyone  under  the  rank  of  Oaptain,  and  tlie  Majors, 
Colonels  and  Genei'als  were  in  a  lar^e  majority.  The 
followin*^-  lines  which  1  found  floating-  around  in  the 
columns  of  some  newsi)ai)er,  entitled,  "  What  Did  the 
Privates  Do?"  seem  tome  to  be  so  well  entitled  to 
rescue  from  oblivion,  that  1  insert  them  here  : 

WHAT    I>IJ)    TMK    rMMVATKS    DO? 

Out  dailies  teem  with  daring  deeds, 

And  books  are  (ille  I  witli  faiii'.', 
"Brass  hands  Mill  play  an<l  caniioii  roar 

In  honor  of  the  name 
Of  men  who  held  commissions,  and 

Were  honest,  brave  and  true; 
But  still  the  question  comes  to  us. 

What  did  the  privates  do? 

Who  were  the  men  to  guar  I  the  camp , 

When  foes  were  hovering  'round? 
Who  dug  the  graves  of  comrades  dear? 

Who  laid  them  in  the  ground? 
Who  sent  the  dying  message  liome 

To  those  he  never  knew? 
If  officers  done  all  of  this, 

What  did  the  privates  do? 

Who  were  the  men  to  (ill  the  place 

Of  comrades  killed  in  strife? 
Who  were  the  men  to  risk  their  own 

To  save  a  comrade's  life? 
Who  was  it  lived  on  salted  pork, 

And  bread  too  hard  to  chew? 
If  officers  done  this  alone, 
•  WTiat  did  the  privates  do? 

All  honor  to  the  brave  old  boys 

WTio  rallied  at  the  call ; 
Without  regard  to  name  or  rank, 

We  honor  one  and  all . 
The3''re  passing  over,  one  by  one, 

And  soon  they'll  all  be  gone 
To  where  the  books  will  sureiy  show 

Just  what  the  privates  done. 


150  FIVE   YEARS   A   CAVALRYMAN. 


CHAPTEE  XXIII. 


DE  FORREST'S  STORY  OF  COLONEL  MARCY'S  FAMOUS 
MARCH  ACROSS  THE  MOUNTAINS  DURING  THE 
ALBERT  SIDNEY  JOHNSTON  EXPEDITION  IN  1857. 

In  the  earlier  chapters  of  these  sketches  I  have 
alluded  to  an  old  soldier  named  Jim  DeForrest,  and 
who  had  interested  me  very  much  by  his  anecdotes 
and  reminiscences  of  army  life  in  the  ante  helium  days, 
the  oUJ  army,  as  the  "  old  regulars "  love  to  call  it. 
Jim  had  formed  one  of  the  party  under  Captain  Marcy 
that  crossed  the  mountains  from  Fort  Bridger,  in  Utah, 
to  Fort  Massachusetts,  in  Xew  Mexico,  in  the  winter 
of  1857-8.  He  had  long  promised  me  a  narrative  of 
this  memorable  trip,  and  one  rainy  night  in  Jacksboro, 
at  my  quarters,  a  roaring  fire  in  the  fireplace,  our  pipes 
lighted  and  "  creature-comforts  "  at  hand,  he  told  it  to 
me.*  Nothing  in  the  annals  of  army  life  i)arallels  this 
march,  not  only   on  account  of  the  sufferings  of  the 

*He  ri'lati'd  this  to  me  and  I  wrote  it  iu  my  diary  from  recollection,  more 
than  a  year  before  I  had  the  pleasure  of  reading  Colonel  Marcy 's  "Thirty 
Years  of  Uorder  Life,"  and  I  was  greatly  jjleaaed  to  find  how  nearly  alike  he 
and  Jim  had  told  it,  substantially  the  same.  Poor  fellow!  he  was  soon  after 
Ijuried  by  the  Brazos,  near  Waco,  where 

"An  unlettered  stone  at  his  head  and  his  feet, 
Alone  mark  the  spot  of  his  final  retreat. ' ' 

He  would  have  been  proud  to  have  seen  Colonel  Marcy's  book,  for  honor- 
able mention  of  him  is  made  in  it.  Thk  Ai;tuou. 


FIVE   YEAKS   A   CAVALRYMAN.  151 

men,  but  for  their  heroic  endurance  and  patience  under 
them. 

DE    FORREST'S    STORY. 

"Toward  the  end  of  November,  1857,  I  belonged  to 
a  company  of  the  Tenth  Infantry,  stationed  at  Fort 
Bridger,  in  Utah,  and  one  evening  we  were  informed 
at  "retreat"  that  a  party  of  foi-ty  men  was  to  be  de- 
tailed to  cross  the  mountains  into  New  Mexico  to  procure 
suj)plies,  which  recent  reverses  to  our  army  under 
Albert  Sidney  Johnston  rendered  necessary.  We  were 
Informed  that  a  certain  number  of  men  were  to  be 
asked  to  volunteer  from  each  comj)any,  and  from  among 
them  the  forty  to  compose  the  party  were  to  be  selected 
by  the  officer  who  was  to  command  the  expedition,^ 
Captain  Randolph  B.  Marcy,  Fifth  Infantry.  The  whole 
number  of  men  called  for  stepped  to  the  front,  and  I 
was  one  of  those  selected  from  my  company.  In  ad- 
dition to  the  soldiers  we  had  twenty  or  thirty  packers 
and  guides,  and  took  with  us  some  sixty  odd  pack 
mules.  It  was  thought  that  with  ordinary  good  luck 
we  could  reach  our  destination  in  three  weeks,  but  the 
Captain,  to  make  sure,  took  thirty  days  rations,  and  on 
the  morning  of  November  134th  we  turned  our  backs 
on  Fort  Bridger  and  commenced  our  march  across  the 
Eocky  Mountains,  most  of  us  old  soldiers  knowing  fidl 
well  that  there  was  a  tough  time  ahead  of  us. 

"For  the  first  two  weeks  our  trij)  was  comparatively 
pleasant;  we  found  plenty  of  grass  for  the  animals, 
and  the  snow  was  not  of  sufficient  depth  to  seriously 
impede  our  progress.  About  December  10th  we  struckL 
and  crossed  Grand  river,  and  here  at  the  foot  of  the 
Elk  Mountains  we  were  within  a  few  miles  of  the  west- 
ern base  of  the  Rockies,  and  the  real  work  of  the 
expedition  was  before  us.  Some  Digger  Indians  whom 
we  fell  in  with  endeavored  to  dissuade  the  Captain. 


152  FIVE   YEARS   A    OAVALRYMAN. 

from  attempting  to  cross  the  mountains,  on  account  of 
the  great  depth  of  the  snow,  but  the  next  day  we  set 
out.  The  snow  was  now  becoming-  deeper  and  deei)er, 
and  in  the  course  of  a  day  or  two  it  greatly  imi)eded 
our  i)rogre;.s,  and  as  it  thawed  a  little  during  the  day 
and  froze  at  n^'ghtand  formed  a  crust,  it  cut  the  animals' 
legs  and  made  our  progress  very  difficult  and  painful. 
The  snow  grew  deeper  each  day  as  we  ascended  the 
mountains,  and  the  only  way  in  which  we  could  advance 
was  to  form  in  single-tile,  the  leading  men  crawling  on 
all-fours  and  so  breaking  a  i)ath,  and  as  the  front  man 
became  exhausted,  he  would  turn  out,  and  when  all 
had  i)agsed  he  would  fall  in  the  rear,  and  so  on. 

"  Our  animals  now  having  no  sustenance  except  the 
leaves  of  the  stunted  pine  trees,  cohimenced  to  give 
out  and  began  to  die  at  the  rate  of  five  and  six  a  day, 
and  at  the  same  time  our  provisions  were  nearly  used 
up.  We  now  threw  away  all  of  our  baggage  excei)t 
one  blanket  a.pi»_^ce,  aiid  our  arms  and  ammunition,  and 
the  n'lules  being  thus  somewhat  lightened  of  their  loads 
were  able  to  proceed  slowly. 

"The  snow  was  now  up  to  our  armpits  and  so  light 
that  we  sunk  to  oiir  waists  at  every  step;  the  tops  of 
the  hiountains  were  yet  a  long  distance  oflF,  and  one 
night  we  ate  the  last  morsel  of  our  rations.  Our 
aiiimals  remained  to  us,  aiid  the  first  one  killed  was  a 
])ony  that  belonged  to  the  Indian  wife  of  one  of  our 
guides,  and  being  in  tolerable  condition  it  made  very 
fan'  eating.  For  the  next  two  weeks  our  only  food 
consisted  of  our  starveid  and  half-fi'ozen  mules,  and  a 
great  many  of  us  had  badly  frozen  our  feet  and  hands. 
Ca])tain  Mai'cy  gave  up  liis  own  horse  to  one  of  the 
nien',  and,  noble  geiitleman  that  he  was,  took  his  place 
in'  the  snow  with  the  rest  of  us,  and  in  fact  shared  f  1'  our 
har([lshii)S  and  privations  the  same  as  one  of  the  men. 


FIVE    YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  153 

"  Our  tobacco  had  loii^-  since  given  out,  and  one  day 
the  Captain  took  his  reniaininf>-  i)lu<>  from  his  pocket, 
cut  it  up  into  little  pieces,  one  for  eachof  us,  reserving- 
none  for  himself,  an  act  of  self  denial  that  can  only  be 
duly  api)reciated  by  a  tobacco-chewer. 

"We  made  ourselves  fairly  comfortable  at  night, 
each  squad  of  three  or  four  digging  a  hole  in  the  snow 
about  ten  feet  in  diameter  down  to  the  ground,  and 
laying  dry  branches  overhead  to  keep  off  the  wind  ;  we 
were  enabled  to  sleep  quite  warm,  it  being  in  the  day- 
time that  we  froze  our  feet,  our  shoes  being  entirely 
worn  out,  our  trousers  in  tatters,  and  our  feet  and  legs 
only  protected  by  pieces  of  rawhide  taken  from  the 
slaughtered  mules,  and  tied  on  with  thongs. 

"On  January  9th,  one  of  our  guides,  a  Mexican 
named  Mariano  (called  Mary  Ann  among  us),  informed 
the  Captain  that  a  high  peak,  apparently  a  hundred 
miles  off,  was  near  ^rt  Massachusetts,  and  having  a 
few  mules  left,  he  concluded  to  send  Mariano  and  an- 
other guide  on  ahead  and  try  and  reacli  the  fort  and 
bring  us  food,  it  being  thought  they  could  make  it  and 
get  back  in  about  six  days. 

"  In  the  meantime  we  began  to  struggle  down  the 
eastern  slope  of  the  mountains,  and  in  a  few  days 
reached  a  place  where  our  few  remaining  animals  were 
able  to  pick  up  some  scanty  herbage.  Many  of  us  had 
become  snow-blind  from  the  long  exi)0sure  to  the 
blinding  refraction  fi'om  its  glaring  surface,  and  weak, 
hungry,  footsore,  our  condition  was  truly  deplorable, 
seven  days  having  elapsed,  and  yet  no  sign  of  '  Mary 
Ann '  or  any  relief. 

"  Some  of  our  poor  fellows,  half  delirious  with  hunger, 
and  their  eyes  dimmed  by  the  glare  from  the  snow, 
would  imagine  that  they  could  see  wagons  approaching 
in  the  distance,  but  alas !  it  proved  as  delusive  as  the 


154  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

mirage  of  the  desert.  Eleven  days  had  passed  since 
^  Mary  Ann '  had  left  us  in  his  endeavor  to  get  relief, 
and  we  began  to  entertain  fears  that  he  and  his  com- 
rade were  lost,  when  one  of  the  men,  on  a  lookout, 
yelled :  '  Here  come  two  men  on  horseback ! '  And  sure 
enough  it  was  the  guides.  They  had  reached  the  fort, 
and  announced  the  joyful  news  that  two  wagons  loaded 
with  supplies  were  on  their  way  to  our  relief.  The 
next  day  they  reached  us,  and  only  famished,  frozen, 
exhausted  men  can  realize  the  revulsion  of  feeling  that 
Ave  experienced  when  we  found  that  we  were  snatched 
from  the  very  jaws  of  death  ! 

"As  might  have  been  anticipated,  some  of  the  men 
committed  excesses  in  the  way  of  eating,  and  one  poor 
fellow  died  the  next  morning  from  overtaxing  his 
digestive  organs,  weakened  as  he  was. 

"  On  January  22,  1858,  we  arrived  within  the  hos- 
pitable shelter  of  Fort  Massachusetts,  having  been  for 
sixty  days  ex])osed  to  as  great  a  degree  of  privation  as 
any  i)arty  of  soldiers,  of  which  there  is  any  record. 
Captain  Marcy  was  'thanked'  in  an  official  manner,  and 
well  he  deserved  it,  for  his  conduct  of  the  expedition. 
New  clothing  was  issued  to  us  in  lieu  of  that  worn  out 
on  the  trip,  part  of  which,  overcoats  and  blankets,  we 
had  been  compelled  to  throw  away,  and  we  were  told 
that,  '  owing  to  our  extraordinary  hardships,'  this 
clothing  would  not  be  charged  to  us.  However,  I 
found  mine,  some  forty  dollars  worth,  charged  np  on 
my  '  descri])tive  list'  when  I  got  back  to  my  company." 

8uch  is  an  imperfect  sketch  of  this  memorable  expe- 
dition as  told  to  me  by  one  of  the  actors  in  it,  but  as 
related  by  me  it  loses  much  of  the  interest  it  possessed 
when  told  by  him.  It  will  be  noticed  by  anyone  who 
has  read  Colonel  Marcy's  interesting  book  that  although 


FIVE   YEARS  A   CAVALRYMAN.  155 

he  makes  honorable  mention  of  the  fortitude  and  con- 
duct  of  his  men,  he  does  not  allude  to  the  fact  that  the 
only  official  recognition  by  the  government  in  the  mat- 
ter was  to  charge  the  poor  fellows  with  the  clothing 
used  up  on  the  fearful  expedition.  Verily,  "republics 
are  ungrateful." 


156  FIVE    YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 


THE  PAYMASTER — RESULTS  OF  PAY-DAY — THE  COURT 
MARTIAL — THE  DAYS  OF  "RECONSTRUCTION  " — THE 
NEW  FORT — "REDHOT  TIMES"  IN  JACKSBORO. 

One  of  the  events  in  the  life  of  the  soldier  is  the 
advent  of  the  ])ayniaster;  it  is  looked  forward  to  with 
A'aried  kinds  of  interest  by  men  of  different  tenij)era- 
nients  and  habits;  his  arrival  marks  an  era  in  the  other- 
wise monotonous  life  of  the  camj),  and  his  de])arture, 
and  the  few  days  following-  it,  by  which  time  most  of 
the  money  is  squandered,  usually  developing  a  long  list 
of  offenses  or  conduct  "to  the  i)rejudice  of  good  order 
and  military  disci])line,"  and  the  consequent  assemblage 
of  garrison  or  field  ofticer's  courtsmartial. 

The  intervals  between  ])ay-days  were  sometimes 
considerable,  during  which  all  kind  of  speculations  as 
to  the  causes  were  indulged  in.  Now  and  then  a  witty 
soldier  would  quote  Micky  Free: 

*  'Tliey  say  some  disaster 
Befell  the  i)aymaster; 
Oil  7H(>coiisciei>ce  I  tliink  that 
The  money's  not  there. ' ' 

At  remote  frontier  posts,  twenty  years  ago,  the  long 
distance  from  headquarters  made  tlie  visits  of  the  pay- 
master few  and  far  between,  and  although  tlie  troops 
are  sui)posed  to  be  i)aid  every  two  months,  it  was  gen- 
erally six  and  often  eight  months  between  the  pay-days. 


FIVE    YEARS    A    OAVALKYMAN.  157 

For  the  weeks  or  inontlis  preceding-  his  arrival  there 
would  not  be  a  cent  of  money  in  the  whole  company, 
and  various  mediums  of  exchange,  of  i)ortable  i)roper'y 
of  different  kinds,  would  be  current  in  camp.  Then 
became  api)arent  the  evil  of  credit,  for  the  sutler  kei)t 
an  open  account  with  the  men,  and  their  scanty  pay 
was  often  hypothecated  long  before  it  was  due. 

^o  sooner  was  a  command  paid  off'  than  it  was  an 
interesting  study  to  see  the  various  characteristics  of 
the  men  exhibit  themselves.  The  drunkard,  keen  to 
get  whiskey  after  a  prolonged  spell  of  enforced  absti- 
nence, at  once  began  to  make  up  for  lost  time  by  either 
congregating  in  the  sutler's  store  or  (ju'etly  and  sur- 
reptitiously going  off  by  himself  with  a  supply,  ac(  ord- 
ing  to  his  disposition.  Gambling  broke  loose  in  evejy 
tent,  either  quiet  games  of  poker,  or  some  smoother 
and  slicker  fellow  than  the  rest  would  spread  a  home- 
made "layout"  prepared  for  the  occasion.  Another 
fellow,  whose  predilections  ran  neither  in  the  d'rection 
of  cards  nor  whiskey,  but  who  longed  for  a  change  of 
food  from  the  army  ration,  either  got  an  order  on  the 
commissary  and  gorged  himself  on  "  officers' stores,'' 
or  else  laid  in  a  sui)i)ly  of  the  doubtful  delicac'es  from 
the  stores  of  the  post-trader,  and  suffered  from  indi- 
gestion and  an  overloaded  stomach  as  long  as  his 
money  held  out.  Now  and  then  some  man  saved  his 
money  and  increased  it  by  trading  and  loaning  it,  and 
occasionally  one  sent  his  pay  home  to  a  relative,  but  a 
large  percentage  of  the  vast  sums  paid  out  annually  at 
Fort  Kichardson  to  officers,  as  well  as  men,  vanished 
into  thin  air,  or  something  as  intangible  or  impercepti- 
ble. A  few  days  and  the  camj)  would  relapse  into  its 
normal  and  imi)ecunious  condition,  the  men  would  cut 
their  tobacco  into  pieces  to  re])resent  "chij)s,"  and  the 
successful  fellow  often  possessed  a  lion's  share  of  the 


158  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

tobacco  of  the  company.  Cartridges  were  a  favorite 
"  medium,"  and  clothing  changed  hands  briskly  at  times, 
but  these  two  latter  articles  were  "  contraband  of  war'^ 
and  likely  to  place  the  offenders  within  the  clutches  of 
the  army  regulations,  or  in  violation  of  an  "  article  of 
war." 

And,  by  the  way,  these  same  "  articles  of  war  "  are 
the  most  cunningly  devised  code  ever  invented,  or 
discovered,  or  collected;  1  know  not  how,  when  or 
where  they  originated,  but  they  are  "to  the  purpose.'^ 
Every  known  and  imaginable  offense  that  a  soldier 
can  under  any  circumstances  commit  is  provided  for, 
and  when  he  does  anything  that  the  regulations  by 
some  oversight  have  failed  to  provide  for,  it  is  neatly 
embraced  in  "conduct  to  the  prejudice  of  good  order 
and  military  discipline,"  which  "  title,"  like  the  tendrils 
of  the  octopus,  "  takes  'em  all  in." 

So  with  the  commissioned  officer,  his  unenumerated 
and  unclassiiied  shortcomings  are  all  made  amenable 
under  the  comprehensive  "  conduct  unbecoming  an 
officer  and  gentleman."  Seriously,  I  know  of  no 
tribunal  that  is  as  impartially  constituted,  as  honestly, 
fairly  and  impartially  conducted,  with  even  and  exact 
justice  to  the  prisoner  and  with  an  eye  to  the  interests 
of  the  government,  where  a  man  is  really  tried  by  "his 
peers,"  and  has  every  opportunity  of  defense,  as  before 
a  general  courtmartial. 

The  State  of  Texas  at  the  time  our  sketches  have 
now  reached  (1868)  was  not  exactly  under  "  martial 
law,"  but  was  under  military  law,  the  civil  government 
being  nominal  and  secondary  to  the  military  to  a  great 
extent.  These  were  the  "  days  of  reconstruction,"  the 
unhai)piest  and  most  dei)lorable — not  even  excepting 
the  war  years — that  our  country  had  gone  through. 
The  condition  of  affairs  in  Texas  was  a  peculiar  one, 


FIVE   YEARS    A    CAVALRYMAN.  159 

and  one  unusually  difficult,  from  the  fact  that  while  a 
j)ortion  of  the  State  (that  is  to  say,  the  nettled  ])ortion8) 
had  to  be  dealt  with  under  all  the  odium  and  embarrass- 
ment of  the  so-called  "  Freedman's  Bureau,"  another 
and  considerable  part — the  frontier — was  the  field  of 
legitimate  military  operations,  and  I  believe  all  fair- 
minded  peojde  will  bear  me  out  in  saying  that  the 
operations  of  the  "  bureau  "  and  its  attendant  evils  were, 
upon  the  whole,  generally  distasteful  to  the  officers  and 
soldiers.  But  as  the  soldier  has  but  one  duty  to  per- 
form, obey  orders,  the  army  had  no  choice  but  to  do  as 
they  were  ordered.  And  I  further  believe  it  to  be 
true,  that,  as  a  rule,  the  military  in  Texas  during  those 
gloomy  days  left  generally  favorable  im])ressions  upon 
the  people  with  whom  they  were  thrown,  and  among 
whom  they  had  their  unpleasant  duties  to  perform. 

The  supi)Osed  necessity  for  troops  in  tlie  tier  of 
counties  adjacent  to  Eed  river  in  Eastern  Texas,  during 
this  spring,  caused  a  depletion  of  our  garrison,  and 
during  the  early  summer  various  details  and  several 
entire  companies  were  dispatched  to  that  section  of 
the  State,  leaving  this  entire  frontier  exposed  to  the 
ravages  of  Indians,  and  rendering  the  duties  for  the 
small  garrison  to  i)erform  very  arduous. 

I  do  not  now  remember  the  amount  of  the '^ap])ro- 
priation  "  for  the  building  of  Fort  Richardson,  but  it 
was  an  exceedingly  liberal  one,  and  during  the  summer 
and  fall  of  1808  over  one  hundred  and  fifty  civilian 
Quartermaster's  employes  were  engaged  on  the  work. 
The  wages  paid  were  very  high,  carpenters  and  masons 
receiving  from  three  to  five  dollars  a  day,  and  doing 
such  work  as  is  usually  performed  on  government 
enterprises — that  is  to  say,  doing  the  very  least  amount 
of  work  in  the  greatest  given  amount  of  time.  All  the 
available  soldiers   in    the   garrison   were   detailed  as 


160  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

laborers  and  assistants,  the  men  so  detailed  receiving- 
forty  eeuts  per  day  in  addition  to  their  pay  as  soldiers. 
Saw-mills  were  established  at  convenient  points  for  the 
l)urpose  of  getting  out  such  timber   as   the   country 
afforded,  and  contractors,  sub-contractors,  freighters, 
and  "  hangers-on "  began  to  realize  a  "  picnic "  from 
the  very  numerous  crumbs  that  fell  from  the  table  of 
our  Uncle  Sam.     Then  began  to  gather  all  that  class  of 
unsavory    characters    which    follow    in   the   wake    of 
the  army ;  "  saloons  "  and  "  groceries  "  sprang  up  all 
along   the    creek  in  the   vicinity   of   the    camp    and 
as  close  to  it  as  the  authorities  would  permit.     The 
erst-quiet— desolation  in  fact — of  Jacksboro  began  to 
blossom,  if  not  "  like  the  rose,"  at  least  like  a  suntlower, 
and  gorgeous  and  euphonious  names  graced  the  board 
or  picket  shanties  that  dotted  the  hillside  and  invited 
the  th'rsty  and  unwary  to  enter.     There  was  the  "  Union 
Headquarters,"  by  Jim  Kramer ;  the  "  Gem,"  the  "  Little 
Shamrock,"    the    "Emerald,"    the    "Sunflower,"    the 
"Island    Home,"    the    "First    IS^ational,"    the    "Last 
Chance," — and  the  sound  of  the  fiddle  and  the  crack 
of  the  six-shooter  was  heard  the  livelong  night.     Money 
was  plenty,  the  prices  of  everything  sold  were  exorbit- 
ant, and  for  several  years  a  condition  of  feverish  and 
fictitious    i)rosperity   prevailed;    some  few,  and    very 
few,    accumulated    money    that    "  stuck,"    the    great 
majority,  however,  wound  up  poorer  than  at  the  begin- 
ning.    The  visitor  who  now  roams  along  the  quiet  and 
placid  waters  of  Lost  creek,  and  beholds  the  dilapidated 
and  grass-grown  fort,  sees  here  and  there  the  tumble- 
down remains  of  an   old  saloon,   now  inhabited  by  a 
darkey  family,  cannot  well  realize  that  "  twenty  years 
ago  "  it  was  the  scene  of  redhot  activity.     The  "  Coffee 
House "    was   in   full    blast ;    "  Jimmy  Nolan's  Dance 
House"  was  resonant  with  sound,  and  frequently  the 


FIVE    YEARS   A    OAVALKYMAN.  161 

scene  of  an  inquest.  Here  once  or  twice  a  year  all  the 
contractors  in  Texas  gathered  to  bid  on  the  "lettings'' 
of  contracts  for  corn,  hay,  fuel,  transi)ortation,  or  flour  ; 
and  here  at  intervals  gathered  the  merchants  from 
Sherman,  McKinney,  Dallas,  Jefferson  and  Weather- 
ford,  often,  too,  from  Waco,  San  Antonio  and  Austin, 
to  buy  "inspected  and  condemned"  horses,  wagons,  or 
clothing-,  sold  at  auction  by  the  government. 

The  merchant  and  the  farmer  did  not  in  those  ha])i)y 
days  spend  their  time  whittling  goods  boxes  or  dis- 
cussing- crop  prospects  and  the  chances  of  a  drouth — 
for  wet  or  dry,  crops  or  no  crops,  the  ])aymaster  came 
at  pretty  regular  intervals,  and  as  he  disbursed  per- 
haps from  four  thousand  to  six  thousand  dollars 
to  each  company-  present  for  duty  at  the  post,  nearly 
all  of  which,  as  stated,  was  expended  forthwith  for 
goods  at  rattling-  i)rofit8,  it  may  be  easily  conceived 
that  flush  times  prevailed,  not  counting-  on  the  "  season,'^ 
so  often  a  disappointment  in  this  climate. 

The  leading-  saloon  in  Jacksboro,  on  one  of  these 
occasions,  between  nightfall  and  reveille  the  following- 
morning-,  took  in  over  a  thousand  dollars.  The  voice 
of  the  keno  man  and  the  deceptive  click  of  the  roulette 
ball  were  heard  in  the  land,  and  at  early  dawn  the  road 
to  the  post  would  be  strewn  with  the  forms  of  belated 
soldiers  who  "  fell  where  they  fought,"  and  who  per- 
chance had  opportunity  afforded  them  to  spend  a  few 
days  in  the  solitude  of  the  guard-house,  reflecting  ou 
the  uncertainties  and  vicissitudes  of  human  affairs. 

From  1868  to  1872  or  1873,  over  half  a  million  dollars 
I)er  annum  were  disbursed  here  directly  and  indirectly, 
all  of  which  found  its  way  through  the  channels  of  trade 
into  the  hands  and  pockets  of  the  people,  and  if  we  didn't 
actually  kill  many  Indians,  who  shall  say  Fort  Eichard- 
80u  was  not  a  potent  factor  in  "  settling  up  the  country." 

6* 


162  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 


FORT  RICHARDSON — THE  STRING  BAND — OLD  RANN — 
"i'M  TOO  YOUNG  TO  MARRY" — BROTHER  PATTON — ■ 
IMPROVEMENTS  —  THE  HOSPITAL  —  THE  SURGEON 
AND  THE  "acting"  SURGEON — FISHING  FOR  A 
DISCHARGE — A  "  SURE  CURE"  FOR  CHILLS. 

The  original  plan  of  the  post  and  of  its  buildings 
would,  if  carried  out,  have  made  one  of  the  prettiest 
forts  in  the  Union,  but  for  reasons  unknown  to  me  the 
plan  was  altered  and  botched  from  time  to  time,  until 
it  finally  lost  all  symmetry.  Five  good  officers'  quarters 
were  completed,  a  fine  rock  hospital  and  a  rock  com- 
missary, the  bakery  and  the  guard-house,  were  built 
according  to  the  original  plan,  but  the  barracks  were 
of  pickets,  and  both  inadequate  and  uncomfortable,  and 
the  junior  officers,  when  the  garrison  was  full,  had  to 
occui)y  tents  and  temporary  quarters,  placed  on  the 
flanks  of  the  "  officers*  line." 

One  James  Oakes,  brevet  Brigadier  General  and 
Colonel  of  the  regiment,  arrived  and  assumed  com- 
mand during  the  summer  or  early  fall,  and  continued 
as  post  commander  until  the  departure  of  the  regiment 
for  Kansas  in  1871.  From  this  time  (ISOcS)  until  the 
final  abandonment  of  the  post  in  1878,  Fort  Eichardsou 
was  almost  continuously  a  regimental  headquarters ; 
the  Fourth  Cavalry,  under  the  gallant  Mackenzie,  and 
afterward  the  Eleventh  Infantry,  under  Colonel  Wood, 


FIVE   YEAKS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  163 

and  that  elegant  soldier  and  gentleman,  Lieutenant 
Colonel  Bnell,  being  successively  stationed  here.  Each 
of  these  regimental  headquarters  had  magnificent  bands, 
and  when  the  evening  gan  boomed  out,  tlie  garrison 
flag  fluttered  majestically  to  the  ground,  and  the  stirring- 
strains  of  martial  music  floated  out  over  the  beautiful 
Texas  landscape  on  the  still  night  air,  it  formed  a  pic- 
ture that  the  old  resident  maybe  pardoned  for  looking 
back  on  with  reminiscent  regret  for  the  "  good  old 
times"  gone  by  forever. 

The  bands  of  the  post  each  had  a  subordinate  and 
private  organization,  known  as  a  string  band  or  orches- 
tra, and  when  balls  or  parties  were  given  in  Jacksboro 
the  citizens  always  engaged  their  services,  and  no  such 
music  has  been  heard  here  since  then.  The  local 
musician  of  those  days,  "  Old  Eann,"  was  tilled  with 
envy  of  the  post  boys ;  and,  by  the  way,  some  of  the 
people  here  thought  "  Old  Rann,"  in  his  execution 
of  "  Ootton-Eyed  Joe  "  or  "  I'm  too  young  to  marry, 
love,"  was  far  superior  to  them.  Again,  a  club  of  the 
officers  and  men  at  the  post,  known  as  the  "Jolly  Blues," 
would  occasionally  give  a  ball  to  which  the  citizens 
were  invited,  and  as  they  had  a  large  room  nicely  fitted 
np  and  decorated  with  flags,  arms,  etc.,  with  a  good 
floor,  they  were  enjoyable  occasions,  and  no  friction 
ever  occurred  between  the  citizens  and  soldiers,  as  a 
rule.  This  don't  apply  to  the  colored  soldiers ;  the 
citizens  here  had  little  use  for  the  latter,  and,  in  fact, 
the  white  soldiers  hadn't  either ;  they  looked  upon 
them  as  an  itmiecessary  evil  in  times  of  peace,  no  matter 
how  useful  they  might  have  been  during  the  war,  when, 
it  is  said,  they  "  fought  bravely." 

Jacksboro,  during  these  days,  was  a  busy  place,  and 
improvements  of  various  kinds  were  inaugurated ; 
among  other  things  a  new  court-house  was  commenced, 


164  FIVE   YEARS   A   CAVALRYMAN. 

one  I).  AV.  Patton  being  the  builder.  This  old  gentle- 
man was  a  character  in  his  way,  a  most  enthusiastic 
and  bi'ill-ant  Mason,  and  as  such,  was  thrown  in  close 
contact  with  the  military  people,  many  of  whom  were 
members  of  the  Masonic  fraternity,  and  contributed 
liberally  to  the  Masonic  Hall,  also  commenced  about 
this  time.  The  old  man  "passed  over"  in  1877,  and  is 
remembered  with  affection  by  the  many  who  "  sat  with 
him  "  and  listened  to  his  wonderful  proficiency  in  the 
work. 

The  old  court-house  which  he  built,  and  firmly  be- 
lieved to  be  the  finest  structure  on  the  continent,  has 
also  "  passed  away,"  to  make  room  for  the  elegant  new 
one  finished  in  1886. 

No  one  institution  of  camp  life  is  of  more  importance 
(or  scarcely  as  much)  to  the  well  being  of  the  soldier 
as  is  the  hospital.  It  is  regarded  by  the  good  soldier 
as  the  one  retreat  where  he  can  find  himself  surrounded 
by  at  least  some  comforts  in  case  of  illness,  and  by  the 
"  beat "  and  "  malingerer  "  as  the  prospective  bourne 
which  he  some  day  hopes  to  reach  and  enjoy  "special 
d'et "  and  shirk  duty.  At  many  posts,  if  not  at  the 
majority  of  them,  the  hospital  is  so  mhospitable  as  to 
present  few  attractions,  and  all  keep  away  from  it  as 
long  as  possible,  the  prospect  promising  less  comfort 
tlian  the  barracks.  Such  had  been  the  case  in  my  ex- 
]>erience  heretofore,  the  hospital  accommodations  con- 
sisting of  tents  or  rudely  constructed  shanties,  but 
Fort  Eichardson  being  intended  for  a  first-class  post, 
the  hospital  was  speedily  finished,  and  was  a  fine  rock 
l)uilding  with  two  large  wards,  each  with  a  capacity  of 
twelve  beds,  a  maximum  of  air  space,  broad  verandas, 
fine  ventilation,  and  every  accessory  necessary  to  the 
comfort  of  the  inmates.  The  surgeon  in  charge  at  the 
time  of  its  occupancy  was  one  Dr.  Carvallo,  a  foreigner 


FIVE    YEARS    A    CAVALRYMAN.  165 

by  birth,  I  think,  and  of  whom  I  have  but  little  recol- 
lection, save  that  he  and  "  Old  Paddj^ "  were  at  deadly 
feud,  and  that  he  was  the  author  of  an  extraordinary  pam- 
phlet entitled,  "Ten  Days  Experience  of  an  Assistant 
Surgeon  in  the  Army  of  the  Potomac."  This  pamphlet 
was  written  by  the  doctor  in  commemoration  of  his 
trials  and  tribulations  while  at  the  "front,"  and  I  only 
remember  a  sentence  or  two  contained  in  its  first  pages, 
which  struck  me  as  being  worth  recording,  although 
I  onr'tted  to  co[)y  them  at  the  time,  as  I  intended 
doing.  He  goes  on  to  state  that  he  was  "  on  duty  in 
the  Douglas  Hosi)ital,"  that  he  had  long  "  burned  to 
visit  the  tented  held,"  when  at  last,  just  after  Antietam, 
he  was  one  day  notilied  that  he  Avas  to  be  one  of  a  party 
of  surgeons  who  were  at  once  to  go  to  the  front.  He 
then  says :  "  When  1  was  informed  tliaf  I  was  one  of 
the  fortunate  party  detailed  for  this  duty,  I  can  only 
compare  my  feelings  with  those  of  the  Virgin  Mary 
when  she  was  informed  by  the  angel  that  she  was  about 
to  become  the  nu)ther  of  our  Lord  ! " 

Bitter  and  vindictive  was  the  war  between  the  doctor 
and  commanding  officer,  but  he  had  to  succumb,  and 
got  himself  ordered  elsewhere.  He  was  succeeded  by 
one  Dr.  Patzki,  a  medical  officer  who  had  had  long  ex- 
perience, a  most  skillful  and  accomplished  surgeon, 
well  posted,  too,  in  his  "  rights  "  as  an  army  officer,  and, 
knowing  his  rights  and  daring  to  maintain  them,  he 
held  his  own  against  the  commanding  officer  during  his 
stay  at  the  post. 

The  medical  staff  of  the  army  being  at  the  time  small, 
and  the  military  })osts  and  stations  very  numerous,  a 
great  number  of  civilian  physicians  were  engaged- 
known  as  "  contract "  or  "  acting  "  assistant  surgeons. 
These  gentlemen  occui)ied  a  very  anomalous  position  ; 
they  were  not  exactly   civilians,  nor  not  quite  officers, 


166  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALKYMAN. 

yet  a  certain  Judge  Advocate  General,  Holt,  I  think, 
decided  that  they  were  "  officers  and  gentlemen,"  but 
not  entitled  to  the  respect  due  to  one  as  a  man,  nor  to 
the  other  as  an  official.  These  "  contract  surgeons " 
were,  as  a  rule,  very  ordinary  persons,  but  the  "  ex- 
igencies of  the  service  "  very  frequently  gave  them 
charge  at  a  post,  and  their  attempts  to  "  wrestle  "  with 
the  complicated  system  of  reports  and  returns,  peculiar 
to  the  medical  department,  kept  them  in  hot  water. 

Fortunately  for  the  troops,  most  post  hospitals  had 
a  hospital  steward  belonging  to  the  general  staff,  and 
as  these  men  were  old  soldiers,  competent  druggists, 
and  of  fine  clerical  ability,  the  amount  of  injury  liable 
to  result  from  the  ''  contract  gentlemen  "  Avas  somewhat 
mitigated.  The  stewards  all  felt  the  utmost  contempt 
for  this  grade  of  surgeon,  and  never  allowed  any  op- 
portunity to  pass  where  they  could  bring  discredit  on 
them. 

To  a  certain  class  of  men  always  to  be  found  in  the 
army,  the  possibilities  of  by  some  means  or  other  ob- 
taining their  discharge  on  "  surgeon's  certificate  of 
disability "  becomes  the  one  idea  of  their  lives ;  and 
some  chronic  complaint,  however  slight,  is  nursed  and 
magnified  in  the  hope  of  accomplishing  their  desires. 
Sometimes  they  "  make  it,"  sometimes  they  don't,  but 
the  number  of  fellows  so  discharged  each  year  is  large, 
and  my  experience  was  that  nine  out  of  every  ten  were 
just  as  well  and  able  bodied  as  when  they  enlisted. 

One  Farrelly,  a  recruit  who  arrived  about  this  time, 
very  soon  began  to  exhibit  idiosyncrasies  that  would, 
if  we  had  not  known  better,  seemed  to  indicate  that 
his  mind  was  more  or  less  unhinged.  He  would  sing 
at  the  top  of  his  voice  when  walking  his  beat,  accost 
the  officers  by  their  given  names,  and,  in  fact,  assumed 
the  role  of  the  incorrigible  Irish  "  innocent "  with  such 


FIVE   YEARS   A   CAVALRYMAN.  167 

success  that  the  company  officers  finally  gave  him  up 
as  a  "bad  job,"  and  he  was  assigned  to  such  work  as 
"cook's  i)olice"  and  kindred  duty  which  required 
but  little  vim  to  i)erform.  So  far,  so  good ;  but  Far- 
relly,  linding  that  in  order  to  accomi)lish  his  object,  a 
discharge,  it  would  be  necessary  to  give  more  demon- 
strative symptoms  of  aberration  of  mind,  took  to  tish- 
ing-  on  the  parade  ground — that  is,  he  would  fasten  a 
crooked  pin  to  a  string,  and,  with  the  i)ole  in  his  hands, 
sit  for  hours  at  the  edge  of  the  parade,  intently  gazing 
on  his  fishing  line  and  muttering  to  himself.  He  soon 
attracted  the  attention  of  the  officers,  was  placed  in 
hospital,  examined,  and  "  played  it "  so  well  that  his 
discharge  was  recomuiended,  and  the  papers  forwarded 
to  the  medical  director,  Farrelly  keeping  up  his  fishhig 
meanwhile.  In  due  time  the  papers  came  back  "  ap- 
proved," he  was  sent  to  the  Adjutant's  office,  his  dis- 
charge and  final  statements  given  him,  and  with  the 
long  coveted  document  in  his  hand,  he  proceeded  to 
his  quarters,  when  he  met  the  commanding  officer 
coming  acrosc  the  parade.  "Ah!  Farrelly,"  said  he, 
"  why  arn't  you  fishing  this  morning  f  "  "  Your  honor,'^ 
replied  Farrelly,  holding  up  his,  discharge,  "  I've  got 
what  I  was  fiching  for  this  long  time."  And  sure 
enough  he  had ;  he  had  outwitted  the  whole  medical 
fraternity  of  the  post,  although  there  was  a  lingering 
suspicion  all  the  while  that  he  was  "  playing  off." 

Bob  Fa  wig,  my  old  company  clerk,  was  an  inveterate 
beat,  and  had  a  countenance  that  would  upon  occasions 
impose  upon  a  whole  college  of  surgeons.  The  surgeon, 
though,  had  at  last  got  to  know  Bob  pretty  well,  and 
one  day  at  sick-call  concluded  to  have  some  fun  with 
him,  as  he  presented  himself  suffering  with  a  supposi- 
tious case  of  chilly-,.  Huge  doces  of  quinine  heretofore 
administered  had  not  been  sufficient  to  deter  Bob  from 


liyS  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

attempting  to  i)lay  off  so  long  as  he  thought  there  was 
the  slightest  chance  of  getting  "excused"  from  duty. 
The  doctor  gravely  produced  his  electrical  api)aratus, 
a  powerful  one,  and,  charging  it  to  its  maximum  power, 
directed  Bob  to  seize  the  handles  with  a  firm  grip.  In 
a  few  moments  he  began  to  dance  about  and  roar  with 
pain,  it  being  impossible  for  him  to  let  loose,  and  he 
shrieked  out :  "  Oh !  Doctor !  Doctor  !  stop  the  blasted 
thing,  and  I'll  never  have  another  chill  as  long  as  I'm 
in  the  army  !  "  And  sure  enough,  he  never  did  as  long- 
as  Dr.  Gunn  was  the  surgeon  in  charge. 


FIVE   YEARS    A    CAVALRYMAN.  JG9 


CHAPTEII  XXVI. 


THE  YANKEE  MACHINE — THE  OVERLAND — THE  PALMY 
DAYS  OF  STAGING — LIEUTENANT  HILL — "  DONIGAN  " 
— THE  FLEA — "WOMAN,"  A  POEM. 

As  the  panorama  of  the  past  rolls  by,  among-  the 
pleasantest  memories  of  these  days  are  the  hours  of 
social  intercourse  spent  among  the  citizens  of  Jacks- 
boro  when  off  duty.  One  of  the  favorite  gathering 
places  was  S.  W.  Eastin's  old  store  on  the  west  side  of 
the  square,  where  congenial  S])irits,  who,  during  the 
then  recent  unpleasantness,  had  worn  both  the  blue 
and  gray,  would  congregate  and  tell  how 

'  -Fields  were  lost  and  won. ' ' 

Eastin  was  an  inimitable  story-teller,  and  generally 
capped  the  climax  of  the  evening  with  a  reminiscence 
of  his  Arkansaw  exi)eriences  during  the  war. 

One  of  the  funniest  of  his  yarns  was  about  a  raid 
made  into  a  village  of  Southern  Missouri  by  gome 
Arkansas  troops,  who  proceeded  to  go  through  the 
stores  and  shops  and  help  themselves  to  such  articles 
as  struck  their  fancy  or  seemed  to  till  a  long  felt  wan'. 
Some  took  clothhig,  others  groceries  or  tobacco,  or 
whatever  seemed  to  please  them  most,  but  the  contents 
of  a  tinshop  attracted  the  eye  of  one  long  and  awkward 
trooper,  and  he  industriously  filled  a  huge  sack  with 
such  things  as  he   saw,  but  mostly  with  a  lot   of  old 


170  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

fasbioiied  "  cake  cutters,"  shaped  into  scalloped  wheels, 
diamonds,  squares,  and  such  like  forms  as  cake  cutters 
hive  assumed  from  time  immemorial.  The  raid  was  a 
success,  and  after  a  long  ride  back  across  the  border 
the '' Confeds."  went  into  camp.  Our  "Johnnie  "  had 
no  sooner  cared  for  his  horse  and  laid  aside  his  plunder 
than  he  was  observed  seated  on  the  grass  with  his  tin- 
ware spread  out  before  him,  and  appeared  to  be  deeply 
engaged  in  arranging  them  as  if  with  a  view  to  solving 
some  difficult  problem.  An  officer  was  passing,  and 
was  accosted  with,  "  Say,  Cap.,  look-a-here ;  I've  got 
some  sort  of  a  durned  machine  here,  and  I'll  give  any 
feller  ten  dollars  that'll  put  the  doggoned  thing  to- 
gether and  set  it  to  runnin'."  He  thought  he  had 
secured  some  kind  of  a  Yankee  invention  of  which  the 
cake  cutters  were  the  wheels  and  other  component 
parts ! 

General  Gaines  would  perhaps  relate  the  memorable 
occasion  upon  which  he  fought  a  gunboat  single-handed, 
and  Tom  Gibbons  and  Hunt  Kelly  were  ready  to  cor- 
roborate any  or  all  of  Eastin's  experiences.  Alas! 
many  of  them  have  passed  over  the  river,  and  time  is 
8i)rinkling  with  silver  those  of  us  who  are  on  this  side. 
The  amount  of  mother-wit  among  these  people  struck 
me  as  unusual,  and  story-telling  seemed  their  forte, 
and  since  those  days  my  observation  is,  that  off-hand 
oratory  or  the  faculty  of  public  speaking  is  less  rare 
in  this  section  than  it  is  in  the  Eastern  States. 

The  old  citizens  had  funds  of  anecdote,  and  the 
motley  characteristics  of  the  newcomers,  who  had 
scented  the  "boom"  in  Jacksboro  from  afar  off,  and 
had  come  to  take  advantage  of  it,  afforded  curious 
studies  of  character.  Poor  Mason !  an  elegant  young 
fellow,  connected  with  the  stage  line  then  running  from 
Fort    Gibson,  Indian   Territory,  to   Fort   Concho   and 


FIVE    YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  171 

posts  beyond,  was  one  of  our  nightly  crowd,  and  soon 
after  was  killed  by  Indians  when  in  the  line  of  his 
duty. 

Staging  was  in  the  height  of  its  usefulness  in  Texas 
in  those  days  ;  long  routes  hundreds  of  miles  in  extent 
reached  the  distant  towns  and  military  posts ;  no  rail- 
roads had  been  built  in  Northern  Texas,  and  the  stage 
driver,  soon  to  be  extinct,  was  then  seeing  his  palmy 
days.  "  Sand-hill  George,"  the  monumental  liar  of  any 
age,  and  "Posey"  and  Billy  Shields  and  other  "old- 
time"  knights  of  the  whip,  rise  before  me  as  I  write. 
And  yet  the  pioneer  stage  driver  was  a  hero  in  his  way, 
and  was  an  important  factor  in  "  settbng  up  the  coun- 
try." All  across  the  continent,  from  Little  Eock  to 
Los  Angelos,  the  tra^'l  of  the  old  "overland"  is  (or 
was)  at  short  intervals  marked  by  rude  crosses  or 
unlettered  stones,  all  that  was  left  to  show  where  some 
driver  had  been  buried  where  he  fell,  killed  on  his 
stage  by  Indians.  No  less  than  e^'ght  of  these  grpves 
were  pointed  out  between  Jacksboro  and  Belknap, 
thh'ty-flve  miles  distant.  The  "  stock-keeper  "  was  often 
killed  by  arrows  of  prowling  Indians  as  he  slept,  gun 
in  hand,  alongside  his  horses  in  the  corral  or  rude  stable ; 
and  the  driver  was  armed  to  the  teeth,  but  having  to 
manage  two  or  four  half- wild  "  broncho  "  mules,  had 
but  little  chance  to  defend  himself  if  attacked. 

It  was  fun  to  see  the  stage  start  for  Fort  Concho  in 
those  days  ;  the  driver  would  mount  the  box  and  gather 
up  his  lines,  Eastburn  (the  agent)  and  his  clerks  each 
holding  a  mule  by  the  head  ;  then  at  a  signal  they  would 
let  go — and  off  went  the  team  like  the  wind.  The 
driver,  after  a  si)in  around  the  block  for  a  mile  or  two, 
would  get  back  to  the  postoflrtce,  load  up  the  imm.ense 
mail,  and  pull  out  on  a  dead  run. 

In  the  "  settlements  "  splendid  Concord  coaches,  with 


172  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

four  or  six  horses,  carried  the  mail,  and  "  dirt- wagons  '^ 
and  ''jerkies  "  in  less  thickly'  settled  communities,  and 
the  days  of  stagino-  were  in  their  glory.  The  stage 
driver  of  those  days  would  have  looked  with  infinite 
contempt  on  the  rattle-trap  vehicles  of  the  class  that 
now  alone  remain  to  supply  the  unfortunate  and  remote 
places  untouched  by  a  railroad.  Still,  one  of  the  mail 
routes  coming  into  Jacksboro  in  those  days  was  very 
much  like  some  we  have  now.  ''Old man"  Sisk  had 
the  contract  from  Waco  to  Jacksboro,  and  he  "  made 
it  "in  four  days,  "including  sto])pages"^ — which  were 
frequent  and  long — and  his  old  and  dilapidated  hack, 
with  its  uncushioned  seats  and  flapping  curtains,  was 
the  only  connecting  link  in  that  direction. 

During  this  summer  Lieutenant  James  F.  Hill,  a  fine 
young  officer,  and  acting  as  post  adjutant,  was  sent  on 
some  duty  to  Fort  Worth,  and  in  endeavoring  to  cross 
the  Clear  Fork  of  Trinity,  which  was  swollen  by  recent 
rains,  was  drowned,  as  was  also  one  of  the  detail  who 
accompanied  him.  His  body  was  found  some  distance 
below  the  scene  of  the  accident,  and  his  remains  were 
cared  for  by  Captain  Field  and  others  of  the  Masonic 
fraternity  of  the  village. 

Dan  Donovan,  so  long  afterward  a  "  landmark,"  or  an 
"institution,"  or  both,  of  Jacksboro,  was  with  Lieutenant 
Hill  as  his  servant,  and  made  every  effort  to  save  his 
life,  very  near  losing  his  own  in  doiiig  so.  Poor  Dan  ! 
Good  hearted,  and  regarded  for  long  years  as  no  one's 
enemy  but  his  own;  ever  on  hand  to  wait  on  the  sick, 
and  to  care  for  tlie  suffering  or  the  dying,  his  life  went 
out  under  a  dark  shadow,  and  under  the  imputation  of 
a  fearful  crime,  that  no  one  saw,  but  his  accomplice  (if 
he  did  it)  and  his  Maker. 

Mention  has  been  made  heretofore  in  these  pages  of 
the  boys  having  established  "newspapers"  at  Buff'alo 


FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  173 

Springs  and  Belkna]),  but  they  consisted  only  of  a  sheet 
of  foolscap  gotten  up  in  the  style  of  a  regular  news- 
paper and  written  up  by  the  contributors.  These  had 
served  to  while  away  the  monotony  of  camp  life,  l)ut  in 
the  spring  of  1869  I  conceived  the  idea  of  getting  up  a 
little  sheet,  about  eight  by  ten  in  size,  of  four  pages, 
and  having  it  printed  in  Weatherford.  The  merchants 
in  town  took  hold  of  the  idea  with  avidity,  and  con- 
tributed the  sinews  of  war,  in  payment  of  which  I 
inserted  their  business  cards  on  the  third  and  fourth 
pages,  in  regular  newspaper  style. 

Looking  over  an  old  copy  of  the  paper,  now,  I  see 
among  my  patrons  the  names  of  J.  L.  Oldham,  post- 
trader;  S.  W.  Eastin,  Ed.  Eastburn,  Cook  &  Boaz, 
Aynes  &  Eobinson,  and  Stanley  Cooper,  all  of  whom, 
except  poor  Oldham,  are  still  on  "  this  side,"  and  can 
look  back  and  see  the  wonderful  changes  that  have 
occurred  since  '^  twenty  odd  years  ago."  Although,  so 
far  as  newsi)apers  are  concerned,  it  is  doubtful  whether 
"  The  Flea ''  has  been  imj^roved  on  in  any  particular, 
except  size. 

The  name  selected  for  our  paper — "  The  Flea  " — was 
not  a  euphonious  one,  but  it  was  an  expressive  one, 
and  had  at  least  tlie  merit  of  being  unique  and  unhack- 
neyed. The  "  copy "  was  duly  sent  to  Weatherford, 
and  on  February  1, 1869,  "  Yol.  1,  No.  1,"  of  *'  The  Flea" 
made  its  appearance.  Its  success  was  immense,  and 
having  had  cheek  enough  to  send  copies  all  over  the 
country  for  "  exchanges,"  the  regularly  established 
journals  thought  it  a  good  joke,  and  our  exchange  list 
at  once  became  quite  large.  A  Chicago  i)aper  thought 
the  thing  so  good  that  it  published  it  entire  in  fac 
simile,  advertisements  and  all.  The  "salutatory"  went 
on  to  say:  "Two  years  ago  the  editor  of  this  paper 
published  the  first  journal  that  made  its  appearance  on 


174  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

this  frontier.  After  a  brief  but  brilliant  career,  one  of 
those  sudden  dispensations,  known  as  '  special  orders,' 
wiped  out  Jacksboro  as  a  military  post,  and  the  '  Little 
Joker'  was  ignominiously  packed  on  a  Quartermaster's 
horse  and  moved  to  Fort  Belknap.  Here  the  genius  of 
the  editor  again  broke  forth,  and  the  '  Big  Injun '  for  a 
time  shed  an  undying  lustre  on  the  literature  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  Like  a  meteor  flashing  along  the 
midnight  sky — brilliant  for  a  moment,  then  rendering 
the  darkness  more  intense — so  the  '  Big  Injun  'ran  its 
course.  But  the  vicissitudes  of  fortune  wafted  the 
establishment  to  Buffalo  Springs,  where  the  talent  that 
had  illuminated  two  military  posts  again  asserting  itself, 
the  '  Grasshopper '  became  the  acknowledged  organ  of 
public  opinion.  But  alas !  its  time  was  short.  Fate, 
ever  driving  onward,  seemed  to  say  to  this  j  ournal,  like 
the  voice  of  old  to  the  Wandering  Jew,  'move  on,'  and 
as  a  consequence,  '  here  we  are '  once  more  in  Jacks- 
boro. *  *  #  rpj^g  great  questions  of  the  day 
will  be  discussed  impartially,  and  we  intend  to  occupy 
(like  our  great  contemporaries,  the  London  '  Times ' 
and  x^ew  York  '  Herald  ')  all  sides  of  all  questions,  as 
the  drift  of  i)ublic  opinion  may  from  time  to  time  seem 
to  indicate  as  the  most  popular  and  profitable." 

"The  Flea"  ran  for  a  time,  the  six  numbers  which 
complete  the  file  appearing  at  irregular  intervals,  the 
last  one  bearing  date  June  15,  1869,  and  it  is  safe  to 
say  that  during  its  brief  career  no  paper  published 
under  such  peculiar  circumstances  enjoyed  such  popu- 
larity. The  following  poem,  which  has  considerable 
merit,  and  had  never  before  appeared  in  print,  was 
written  by  a  former  oflicer  of  the  army  and  i)ublished 
in  its  columns ;  and  flattering  myself  that  these 
^'  sketches  "  will  be  more  enduring  than  the  ephemeral 


FIVE   YEAES   A    CAVALRYMAN.  175 

pa^es  of  the  defunct  "  Flea,"  I  take  the  liberty  of  re- 
producing it : 

WOMAX. 

Oh,  woman!  I  am  truly  sick  of  thee— 

FareweU ! 
I've  learned  each  turn,  and  every  trick  of  thee, 

Too  weU ! 
I've  learned  thine  hidden,  inmost  thoughts  to  read, 
And  have  concluded  that  thou  art,  indeed, 

A  very  (£ueer  commodity . 
There  was  a  time,  in  '  'youth's  sweet  prime, ' ' 

When  I  knew  all  th'  insanity. 
That's  in  thehliss  of  a  woman's  kiss. 

And  in  her  smiles  urbanity; 
But  now  grown  cold,  those  joys  of  old 
Appear  to  me  like  tales  twice  told, 

Vexation  all,  and  vanity. 

And  yet  'tis  sweet  to  stem  the  tide  of  early  recollection ; 
'Tip  sweet  in  Memory's  bark  to  ride  the  waves  of  past  aftlictiou; 
1  he  only  joys  my  soul  could  bide  lie  lost  in  that  direction; 
And  sounds  there  are  whose  mystic  spell 

My  callous  soul  still  dizzies. 
The  names  of  darlings  once  my  own, 
Wlio  loved  me  well  and  me  alone — 

The  Julias,  Pets  and  Lizzies — 
T\'Tiose  looks  of  love,  and  laughing  eyes, 
Made  this  poor  world  a  paradise, 

An  1  set  my  heart  delirious. 
Heigh  ho!  descending  from  the  skies. 
Such  joys  along  owe  pathway  rise, 

Lest  earthly  cares  should  weary  us. 

Oh .  woman !  thou  to  me  hast  been 
A  fitful  and  despotic  (lueen , 

A  very  Cleopatra ! 
Mark  Antony,  egregious  fool. 
Might  have  improved  in  Folly's  school, 

Could  I  have  been  his  teacher; 
While  he,  'tis  true,  a  kingdom  gave, 
I  yielded  up  myself  &.  slave, 
And  vowed  for  thee  the  scorn  to  brave 

Of  every  living  creature. 

Then  avaunt!  the  stem  realities  of  life  give  me! 
Those  looks  of  love,  and  sweet  surprise, 
The  light  that  beams  from  woman's  eyes, 

And  kindred  triviality. 
Have  caused  more  woes  beneath  the  sun , 
More  broken  hearts  and  maids  undone. 
More  deadly  feuds  'twixt  sire  and  son, 

And  more  of  man's  rascality, 


176  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

Than  all  the  direful  storms  of  fate, 
Than  knijihtly  ])riclo  or  priestlj'  hate, 
Thau  all  the  Avars  'twixt  church  and  state, 
So  fertile  in  fatality. 

I'll  hie  me  to  some  hermit's  cell, 
Where  bats  and  owls  couteuted  dwell. 

Secure  from  man's  intrusion; 
There  tranquilly  I'll  spend  my  years. 
Where  woman's  smiles  or  Avoman's  tears, 
Can  waken  no  more  hopes  nor  fears. 

And  no  more  hearts'  confusion. 
And  thou,  my  harp,  whose  golden  strings, 
Have  oft  Avith  dreary  murmurings, 
AAVoke  to  brilliant  Avanderings 

My  fancies,  AA'lien  dejected; 

Go  hang  upon  you  ruined  wall, 
With  dust  and  cobAvebs  for  thy  pall. 
And  rest  thee  from  thy  labors,  all 

Silent,  unstrung,  neglected! 
And  Avhen  thy  glittering  chords  I  sundfer. 
One  peal,  like  far  off  echoing  thunder. 

Shall  yet  in  sadness  swell. 
And  breathe  Avith  discord  most  distressing : 
To  7nan,  a  hermit's  parting  blessing — 

To  woman,  a  long  farewell ! 

But  I  must  hasten  oil — many  and  varied  re miiiisceiiees 
are  still  to  be  recorded — and  too  much  space  cannot 
be  given  to  matters  entirely,  or  nearly  so,  personal  to 
myself,  although  throwing  light  on  the  peculiar  con- 
ditions of  society  at  or  near  a  gxeat  military  post. 


FIVE   YEARS    A    CAVALRYMAN.  177 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 


A  TRIP  TO  SAN  ANTONIO — ON  GUARD — FAILURE  AS  A 
COOK  —  SUNRISE  ON  THE  PRAIRIE  —  WACO  —  THE 
"  BUREAU  " — THE  "  FUTURE  GREAT." 

One  morning  in  the  early  part  of  July  I  received  a 
snbi)(ena  to  attend  a  general  coiirtmartial  at  San  An- 
tonio, to  wlrch  I  Avas  summoned  as  a  witness  in  the 
case  of  a  Captain  of  our  reghnent,  against  whom  some 
rather  serious  charges  had  been  preferred  by  a  former 
l)Ost  commander  at  ether  Belknaj)  or  Camp  Wilson, 
something  connected  with  a  sui)posed  irregular  dis- 
position of  company  forage.  I  received  the  summons 
with  considerable  dissatisfaction,  for  I  had  never  en- 
tirely recovered  from  an  a'lment  contracted  at  Buffalo 
Springs  a  year  before,  and  dreaded  a  horseback  ride 
of  three  hundred  and  hfty  miles  in  the  heat  of  summer. 
Another  reason  that  made  me  unwilling  to  leave  my 
com])any  was  the  i)rospect  of  its  being  very  soon 
ordered  into  the  ''  settlements  "  to  take  a  hand  in  the 
"reconstruction  bus'ness,"  and  I  wanted  to  take  part 
in  and  witness  every  phase  of  military  duty,  pleasant 
or  unj)leasant,  let  it  come  as  it  nrght.  A  moment's 
conversation  with  the  commanding  officer  convinced 
me  thnt,  although  willing  to  do  so,  he  had  no  power  to 
help  me  evade  the  summons  of  the  Judge  Advocate  of 
the    courtmartial,  and  with  the  best  possible  grace  I 


178  FIVE    YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

arranged  my  affairs,  turned  over  the  company  books, 
papers  and  property  to  the  first  duty  Sergeant,  and 
prepared  for  the  trip. 

At  this  time  I  had  become  possessed  of  the  best 
horse  I  had  ever  rode,  and  I  still  feel  I  shall  never 
"look  upon  his  like  again.'^  I  doubt  not  many  old  set- 
tlers here  will  remember  him,  for  "  Old  Bill "  had  a 
wide  reputation.  I  think  he  had  belonged  to  an  officer 
of  an  Ohio  v^olunteer  cavalry  regiment  which  was  mus- 
tered out  at  Austin  in  1806,  and  had  acquired  or  been 
taught  a  trait  or  trick  I  never  saw  outside  of  a  circus. 
It  was  his  habit  when  resting  or  tired  to  8(iuat  down 
on  the  ground  like  a  dog  or  cat,  and  his  appearance  in 
this  position  was  novel  and  very  ludicrous.  Then  he 
had  been  taught  to  lie  down,  stretch  himself  out  and 
simulate  sleep,  as  still  and  motionless  as  if  he  was  dead. 
I  rode  him  many  a  mile  over  Western  Texas,  and  in 
1871  rode  him  to  Fort  Hays,  in  Kansas,  where  I  bade 
Mm  farewell  in  October  of  that  year. 

Three  other ''  first "  Sergeants  and  one  duty  Sergeant, 
besides  two  privates  whose  time  had  nearly  expired, 
composed  the  detail,  and,  to  our  surprise,  on  the  eve 
of  starting  we  were  informed  that  we  were  to  convey 
five  "general"  prisoners  to  Austin,  who  had  been  sen- 
tenced to  confinement  in  the  military  prison  at  Ship 
Island,  Mississippi.  Of  course  the  prisoners  were  all 
securely  ironed,  yet  the  duty  of  guarding  them  was 
prospectively  very  disagreeable,  and  such  a  thing  as 
re<iuiring  us  to  perform  a  duty  of  the  kind,  when  on 
detached  service,  was  i)robably  without  precedent. 
However,  there  was  no  alternative  but  to  obey,  and  I 
determined  they  should  not  escape  while  I  was  on 
guard.  This  was  the  only  sentry  duty  I  ever  i)erformed 
during  my  term  of  service.  All  of  my  companions  had 
but  short  ])eriods  to  serve,  and  their  discharges  and 


FIVE    YEARS    A    CAVALRYMAN.  179 

final  statements  were  ^ven  me  by  the  commanding 
officer  before  starting,  to  be  given  tliem  on  tlie  respec- 
tive dates  when  their  terms  of  service  ended.  On  the 
morning  of  a  scorching  July  day  we  "])nlled  out,"  and 
it  was  nearly  two  years  before  I  saw  my  old  (•omi)any 
again,  long  before  which  1  had  ceased  to  belong  to  it, 
and  had  been  assigned  to  other  duties. 

We  intended  to  make  average  marches  of  some 
twenty-five  miles  a  day,  and  thus  reach  Austin  in  about 
ten  days,  but  the  first  day's  march  showed  us  that  the 
Quartermaster  had  furnished  us  with  the  very  worst 
team  in  the  corral,  for  a  sorrier  outfit,  driver,  mules 
and  wagon,  I  never  traveled  with.  At  our  first  camp 
we  cut  saplings  and  made  bows,  as  the  wagon  had  no 
top,  and  stretched  pieces  of  tent  over  them  to  protect 
the  prisoners  from  the  sun. 

The  march,  the  bivouac,  the  campfire,  have  all  been 
so  often  described  by  pens  more  grai)hic  than  mine 
that  I  will  not  take  time  to  attempt  anything  new  ;  they 
have  been  the  theme  of  the  painter,  the  poet  and  the 
novelist,  time  and  again. 

Yet  the  "  route  "  has  a  perpetual  and  inexhaustible 
interest  that  never  wearies,  and  life  in  the  open  air 
possesses  for  the  j)arti(ipant  who  has  youth  and  health 
on  his  side  a  never-failing  charm,  peculiarly  its  own. 

We  divided  our  guard  duty  into  three  reliefs  of  two 
hours  and  a  half  each — the  first  went  on  at  nine  o'clock, 
he  called  the  second  at  half-past  eleven,  and  he  in  turn 
awakened  the  unfortunate  third  relief  at  two  in  the 
morning,  to  said  third  relief  being  assigned  the  prepa- 
ration of  breakfast  for  the  party.  This  deponent  was 
placed  on  the  third  relief  once,  and  07ily  once,  for  his 
efforts  in  the  direction  of  the  breakfast  were  so  unsat- 
isfactory to  the  others  that  he  was  ignored  as  a  cook 
for   the    balance    of  the   trip.     Breakfast  was  usually 


180  FIVE   YEAKS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

ready  by  three  in  the  morning-,  after  which  the  wagou 
was  packed,  our  horses  saddled,  and  at  early  dawn  we 
were  on  the  road.  The  beauty  of  the  young  hoiTrs  of 
morning  in  th's  magnificent  climate  must  have  been 
experienced  to  be  realized.  No  fog,  pregnant  with 
"rheumatics"  or  "ague,"  hung  over  the  landscape; 
no  damp,  wet  grass  to  chill  you  through  and  give  you 
premonitory  S3'm})toms  of  sundry  ailments,  discourages 
early  ris'ng,  but  the  morn,  fresh,  sweet,  healthful 
as  the  waking  of  childhood  from  innocent  slee}),  bursts 
on  the  enraptured  eye  as  "a  thing  of  beauty." 

"Sunr'se  on  the  sea"  has  often  been  said  and  sung, 
suniTGe  on  the  Alps,  or  on  Mount  Washington,  often 
described,  but  sunrise  on  a  Texas  ])rairie  remains 
among  the  beaafes  of  nature  yet  awaiting  the  best 
descriptive  powers  of  the  enthusiast.  The  traveler, 
oblivious  to  the  beauties  of  our  own  land,  on  the  prin- 
ciple that  "  distance  lends  enchantment  to  the  view," 
may  grow  rapturous  over  the  sunny  skies  of  Italy,  or 
descant  in  glowing  terms  on  the  climate  of  hi  hcUe 
France,  but  if  there  is  a  sunnier,  a  fairer  or  a  more 
favored  clime  than  Texas,  it  must  surely  be  in  another 
sphere,  not  this  one. 

A  few  days  march  brought  us  to  the  Brazo;*.  valley, 
a  valley  unequaled  in  the  state  and  unsurpassed  any- 
where in  the  Union  for  its  fertility.  A  vast  improve- 
ment was  noticed  in  the  town  ot  Waco,  situated  on  the 
right  bank  of  the  river;  a  fine  suspension  brdge  was 
in  course  of  construction,  new  bu'ldings  were  going 
up  in  all  d'rect'ong,  and  the  feeling  of  the  citizens  I 
conversed  with  seemed  to  be  that  if  civil  i)Ower  could 
only  be  restored,  the  State  would  enter  at  once  on  a 
career  of  unprecedented  prosi)erity.  The  military 
authority  being  in  control  of  the  civil  bureaus,  law, 
justice,  equity,  all    the  fundamental  rights   of  a  free 


FIVE   YEARS    A    CAVALRYMAN.  ISl 

people  were  virtually  siuspended.  The  "  Freediiuui'8 
Bureau,''  originally  eoneeivcd,  no  doubt,  as  the  only 
way  of  solving  the  new  relations  between  the  nmnu- 
mitted  slave  and  his  former  owner,  was  proving  any- 
thing but  a  blessing  to  either  elass,  and  in  its  operations, 
no  matter  what  its  intvntions  may  have  been,  was  un- 
doubtedly a  curse  to  white  and  black  alike.  Each 
village,  town  and  city  was  saddled  with  some  agent  of 
"de  buro,"  who  too  often  stole  alike  from  "bond  and 
free."  The  dream  of  the  darkey  that  he  was  to  have 
"forty  acres  and  a  mule"  had  not  yet  been  dissipated, 
and  the  whole  State  was  groaning  under  a  dei)lorable 
condition  of  affairs.  Notwithstanding  all  this,  the 
country  was  rapidly  recovering  from  the  effects  of  the 
war,  many  immigrant  wagons  were  met  daily,  and  the 
immense  attractions  of  soil  and  climate  were  beginning 
to  bring  the  advance  guard  of  home-seekers  from  the 
o'd  States,  that  s'nce  has  swelled  to  a  mighty  Hood — 
and  the  end  is  not  yet. 

The  Brazos  river,  for  mo^t  of  its  six  hundred  miles, 
waters  a  territory  uneciualed  as  a  cotton  producing 
section,  but  the  "  upper  "  Brazos,  rising  in  the  far  north- 
western corner  of  the  State,  at  th's  time,  for  nearly 
half  its  length,  flowed  between  banks  that  only  echoed 
to  the  war-whoop  of  the  Comanche  or  the  howl  of  the 
coyote.  Bursting  through  the  vAia'ni  of  hills  that  bound 
Fort  Belknap  on  the  west,  it  entered  on  its  career  of 
usefulness,  and  its  remaining  four  hundred  miles  passed 
through  a  section  beginning  to  settle  u})  and  ere  long- 
to  teem  with  population  and  wealth. 


182  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 


CHAPTER  XXYIII. 


ON  THE  ROAD — RECOLLECTIONS  OF  RECRUIT  DAYS — 
ANOTHER  EL-LUM  CREEK — THROUGH  AUSTIN — THE 
SAN  MARCOS — THE  HIDALGO — SAN  ANTONIO  RE- 
VISITED— THE  CHIHUAHUA  WAGON. 

Leaving  Waco,  tlie  Austin  road  traversed  a  high 
rolling-  prairie,  a  kind  of  plateau,  which  apparently 
divided  the  waters  of  the  Leon,  the  San  Gabriel  and 
Lampasas,  which  streams  drain  the  country  between 
the  Brazos  and  the  Colorado  rivers.  The  first  night 
we  camped  on  Elm  creek — pronounced  El-lum — (by  the 
way,  I  know  seven  or  eight  different  "  Elm  "  creeks  in 
Texas),  and  near  our  camp  ground  was  one  of  the  finest 
springs  1  ever  saw,  pouring  from  an  a])erture  in  the 
rocks  ten  feet  above  the  level  of  the  creek,  and  falling 
in  a  miniature,  ice-cold  cascade  down  the  face  of  the 
rocky  banks. 

An  old  Irishman  lived  in  a  comfortable  farm  house 
close  by,  and,  as  was  my  custom  when  I  had  the  o])- 
l)ortunity  to  converse  with  the  people  and  draw  out 
their  ideas,  I  visited  him  after  supper.  The  old  man, 
as  well  as  his  wife,  looked  witli  some  distrust  on  the 
vision  of  a  Yankee  soldier  invading  their  home,  but  I 
soon  convinced  them  that  I  did  not  intend  to  rob  them, 
and  having  purchased  and  paid  for  some  butter  and 
eggs,  got  into  their  good  graces  and  spent  a  pleasant 


FIVE    YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  183 

evening'.  I  soon  found  that  the  ohl  fellow,  like  pretty 
mnvAi  everybody  else  in  this  region,  had  been  in  the 
Southern  army,  that  before  the  war  he  had  served  in 
the  regulai-  army,  had  settled  afterward  in  Texas,  and 
on  the  breaking  out  of  the  war  had  of  course  gone  into 
it,  and  then  at  its  conclusion  had  returned  to  his  farm 
to  start  anew.  His  special  aversion  seemed  to  be  the 
parties  of  recruits  that  from  time  to  time  had  passed 
his  house  en  route  to  the  frontier,  and  whose  repeated 
depredations  on  his  cattle,  pigs,  goats  and  hen-roosts 
had  worked  him  to  a  frantic  pitch  of  indignation 
against  Uncle  Sam,  his  officers  and  men.  He  was  par- 
ticularly eloquent  in  relation  to  one  certain  "  layout  '^ 
that  had  camped  near  his  i)lace  some  two  or  three 
years  before,  and  which  had  about  cleaned  him  out;, 
they  killed  two  goats,  two  hogs,  had  burned  his  fences, 
and  borrowed  and  kept  some  of  his  cooking  utensils, 
and  in  regard  to  whom  he  was  then  in  correspondence 
with  the  War  Department.  As  I  felt  i)retty  sure  the 
old  man's  story  was  true,  and  it  had  been  a  detachment 
on  its  way  to  my  regiment  that  he  referred  to,  I  suc- 
ceeded 'n  turning  the  conversation  into  other  channels. 
I  have  heretofore  alluded  to  the  often  outrageous  con- 
diTct  of  the  recruit  detachments  as  they  passed  through 
the  country  at  this  time,  and  to  their  depredations  on 
the  settlers. 

The  next  day  we  crossed  the  Leon,  and,  pass'ng 
through  Belton,  camped  some  miles  beyond  it.  The 
valley  of  the  Salado,  taking  its  name  from  the  beautiful 
stream  that  flows  through  it,  seemed  fertile  and  well 
settled,  and  the  village  is  i)articularly  impressed  on  my 
mind  as  being  the  lirst  teetotal,  "sure  enough,"  "total 
abstinence"  village  that  I  ever  visited.  A  female  col- 
lege, or  some  institution  of  learning,  controlled  the 
place   and   its   surroundings,   and   neither   "love   nor 


184  FIVE   YEARS   A   CAVALRYMAN. 

money"  could  iiidiK^e  or  produce  any  kind  of  spirits — - 
at  least  so  said  the  boys  who  investigated  the  subject 
as  we  passed  throuoh. 

Some  very  curious  springs  boil  up  in  the  Salado 
creek  (or  river),  cascading,  so  to  speak,  a  couple  of  feet 
above  the  surface  of  the  water  and  falling-  jn  graceful, 
fountain-like  spray,  the  water  being  very  clear  and 
cold.  Thiw  whole  section  impressed  me  as  the  future 
"  Saratoga  of  Texas,"  an  impression  to  some  extent 
realized,  for  I  understand  Lampasas,  near  by,  is  quite 
a  watering  place  at  this  time  (1889). 

Georgetown  and  Round  Rock  were  passed  in  due 
time,  and  on  the  tenth  day  after  leaving  Jacksboro  we 
rode  into  Austin.  It  was  a  beautiful  Sabbath  day  a3 
we  passed  down  the  avenue,  and  our  appearance  was 
so  odd  even  in  this  land  of  odd  looking  "layouts"  as 
to  cause  many  of  the  people  who  were  just  on  their 
way  from  the  various  churches  to  turn  their  heads  and 
smHe  as  we  passed  along.  One  of  our  mules  had 
"played  out"  and  been  abandoned  some  days  before, 
and  of  the  five  remaining  animals  two  had  become  use- 
less and  were  tied  behind  the  wagon,  the  three  others 
forming  a  hard  lookhig  "spike  "  team.  Our  driver  was 
down  with  the  chills  and  laid  oat  In  the  bottom  of  the 
wagon,  and  we  had  i)ut  one  of  the  prisoners  to  driving, 
but  as  he  was  shackled  he  hF.d  to  sH  sideways  on  the 
saddle  mule,  and,  being  also  handcuffed,  h'S  appearance 
was  odd  indeed.  The  covering  of  the  wagon  consisted 
of  some  i)ieces  of  tenting,  eked  out  with  a  quilt  be- 
longing to  a  wench  we  had  picked  up  along  the  road, 
and  who  was  on  her  way  to  the  capital  to  lay  certain 
grievances  befoie  "  de  buro." 

We  wended  oni-  wny  out  Pecan  street  to  the  camp, 
some  two  miles  beyond  the  town,  turned  over  our 
prisoners  to  the  commanding  ollicer,  and   having  no 


FIVE   YEARS    A    OAVALRYMAN.  185 

further  charge  of  them,  and  having'  cared  tor  our 
horses  and  cleaned  off  some  of  the  dust  of  oui-  journey, 
returned  to  the  city  and  ordered  a  "square  meal,"  a 
luxury  to  be  thoroughly  appreciated  only  by  one  who 
for  two  years  had  lived  almost  exclusively  on  army 
rations — which,  no  matter  how  good  in  their  way,  be- 
come monotonous. 

The  city  was  crowded  with  strangers — attracted  by 
the  Constitutional  Convention  then  in  session — and  the 
citizens  seemed  deeply  concerned  in  the  hope  of  the 
State  speedil}^  resuming  relations  with  the  Federal  gov- 
ernment and  the  consequent  restoration  of  the  civil 
authority,  so  long  held  in  abeyance. 

After  resting  a  day  or  two  we  drew  a  decent  team, 
and  having  got  rid  of  our  prisoners,  enjoyed  the  three 
days  march  to  San  Antonio,  some  eighty  or  ninety 
miles  southwest  of  Austin.  The  country  between  the 
two  cities  was,  for  the  most  part,  in  a  high  state  of 
cultivation,  and  limitless  fields  of  corn  and  cotton 
stretched  on  both  sides  of  the  road  as  far  as  the  eye 
could  reach.  One  evening  we  camped  on  the  San 
Marcos  river — one  of  the  most  beautiful  streams  in 
Texas.  At  the  point  where  we  crossed,  it  was  i)erhaps 
ten  yards  in  width,  and  two  or  three  feet  in  depth,  as 
clear  as  crystal  and  cold  as  if  drawn  fi^om  a  shaded 
well,  although  the  vertical  rays  of  the  July  sun  shone 
on  it.  The  latter  was  a  matter  of  surprise  to  us,  until 
we  learned  that  the  source  of  the  stream  was  only  a 
few  hundred  yards  distant  on  the  mountain  side.  In 
the  cool  of  the  evening  I  strolled  out  to  see  the  springs 
from  whence  it  flowed,  and  found  them  high  up  on  the 
hillside,  thousands  of  them  at  least,  forming  a  good- 
sized  pond,  overhung  by  gig-antic  trees,  whose  thick 
foliage  excluded  the  sunlight.  From  this  pond  the 
San  Marcos  emerged  a  full-fledged  and  mature  river 


186  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

without    going    through   the    intermediate    stages   of 
rivulet  or  brook. 

A  refreshing  draught  of  water  can  be  ai)i)reciated  in 
a  country  where,  after  all,  the  only  natural  disadvant- 
age and  drawback  is  (or  was)  the  scarcity  of  cool  and 
palatable  water.  We  camped  one  night  before  reach- 
ing AVaco,  after  a  march  of  thirty-five  miles,  at  a  house 
where  the  only  water  within  a  long  distance  was  a 
"tank,"  the  family  having  to  haul  their  drinking  water 
in  barrels  on  a  "  slide"  over  eight  nn'les.  When  you 
are  very  thirsty,  in  the  language  of  a  late  resident, 
"  everything  goes,"  and  nauseous  as  this  tank  water 
was,  covered  with  scum  and  trampled  up  by  cattle,  we 
drank  it  and  were  thankful. 

At  ^ew  Braunfels  we  had  some  cool  beer  and  an  old 
fashioned  lunch  of  cheese  and  brown  bread,  eaten 
under  the  shade  of  an  enormous  cypress  tree;  saw  and 
examined  the  famous  saddle-trees  made  here  and  at 
Comal,  a  few  miles  distant,  said  to  be  the  best  of  the  r 
kind,  and  at  th'S  time  the  favorites  with  the  cow-men, 
but  in  later  years  they  seem  to  prefer  the  heavy  tress 
made  in  Colorado,  and  which  are  big  enough  and  heavy 
enough  to  extinguish  a  Texas  pony. 

After  leaving  New  Braunfels  we  overtook  a  ChMiua- 
hua  train  loaded  with  cotton  goods,  en  route  to  Mexico, 
and  it  was  the  finest  outfit  of  the  kind  I  had  ever  seen, 
and  was  evidently  owned  by  persons  of  some  conse- 
quence. One  of  the  firm  accompanying  it  was  splen- 
didly inounted  on  a  black  horse  he  told  us  had  cost  a 
hundred  doubloons.  His  dress  was  dark  velvet,  the 
jacket  and  pantaloons  ornamented  with  silver  buttons, 
his  saddle  literally  plated  with  silver,  and  he  wore  an 
elegant  pair  of  silver-mounted  pistols,  his  whole  ap- 
pearance much  like  that  of  the  traditional  bandit  as 
seen  on  the  oi)eratic  stage.     His  train  consisted  of 


FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  187 

thirty  wagons,  each  carryhi<i:  ten  thousand  pounds  and 
drawn  by  twelve  or  fourteen  nuiles,  besides  which  a 
herd  of  three  hundred  extra  mules  was  driven  by  the 
Taqueros. 

The  Mexican  mode  of  attaching  their  mule  teams  is 
peculiar,  in  this,  that  often  four  animals  are  hitched 
abreast  on  the  "swing"  and  "second  swing,"  and  two 
in  the  lead  and  two  at  the  tongue. 

The  "Chihuahua"  wagon  is  much  like  the  old  "  Con- 
estoga"  wagon  that  fifty  years  ago  conveyed  the 
merchandise  of  the  East  along  the  old  National  pike 
over  the  Alleghanies,  and  also  resembles  the  "  prairie 
schooner"  of  later  days  that  carried  the  Argonaut  of 
'49  across  the  plains,  but  both  are  rapidly  disappearing 
before  the  march  of  the  iron  horse,  and  soon  will  fade 
into  the  misty  past — with  the  stage,  the  cowboy,  the 
honest  old  settler,  and  all  things  else,  on  which  are 
written,  "  passing  away." 

Th«»  third  day  out  from  Austin  we  reached  to  within  a 
few  miles  of  our  destination  and  went  into  camj),  rather 
glad  that  we  would  have  a  good  long  rest  without  any 
duties  to  perform  while  before  the  courtmartial . 


188  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 


"how" — THE  TAMALE — CHILI-OON-OARNE— THE  BULL 
FIGHT  —  BY  STAGE  TO  JAOKSBORO  —  OHAFFEE'S 
GUERILLAS — "  BANES  " — "  DER    BRUER'S    BARTY." 

The  country  ill  the  immediate  vicinity  of  San  Antonio 
is  rather  uninteresting,  and  does  not  convey  the  im- 
pression of  being  very  fertile.  The  city  lies  in  a  shallow 
basin,  all  around  its  outskirts  bearing  marks  of  a  very 
old  civilization,  very  old — that  is,  in  a  country  like 
ours  where  nearly  everything  is  new.  In  an  early 
chapter  I  spoke  of  some  of  the  peculiar  features  of 
this  town  as  they  then  struck  me,  and  on  revisiting  it 
I  found  many  things  of  interest,  as  it  is  (or  was)  an 
anomaly  among  American  cities.  Here  it  would 
seem  that  the  old  and  the  new  join  imnds,  here  the 
names,  manners,  features,  costumes  and  langinige  of 
the  days  of  Cortez  and  Pizarro  become  blended  with 
the  styles  and  the  idioms  of  'Hlie  period."  In  the 
streets  were  noticed,  jostling  each  other,  the  latest 
Xew  York  fashions  and  the  Navajo  blankets  and  som- 
breros of  the  Mexican.  In  the  saloons  the  most 
elaborate  mixed  drink  of  "  God's  land  "  and  the  vile 
Mexican  aquadente  mingled  in  a  cosmo])olitan  'MIow  ?" 
"How?"  Whence  or  wherefore,  this  term  so  general, 
twenty  3  ears  ago,  when  in  those  days  convivial  fellows 
'  touched  glasses,"  they  never  said,  "  here's  regards," 


FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  189 

or  "  drink  hearty,"  or  "  bere  goes " — it  was  always 
*^How!" 

We  got  rid  of  the  dust  of  our  journey  by  a  hixuriaut 
batli  in  the  8an  Pedro,  and  reported  to  the  Judge 
Advocate  of  the  court,  who  assigned  us  to  ({uarters  in 
the  barracks  on  Flores  street.  The  houses  seemed 
principally  built  of  a  white  limestone,  or  at  least  mostly 
whitewashed,  the  streets  being  composed  of  the  same 
material,  and  it  seemed  to  me  the  hottest  place  I  had 
ever  been  in,  owing  to  the  glare. 

San  Antonio  is  well  watered,  the  San  Antonio  and 
San  Pedro  rivers  both  meandering  through  it,  and, 
although,  inconsiderable  streams,  add  greatly  to  the 
comfort  and  health  of  the  city.  Many  smaller  water 
courses  which  tind  their  way  into  these  streams  flow 
along  the  sides  of  the  streets,  little  bridges  or  footways 
giving  access  to  the  houses  in  front  of  which  they  run. 

The  gigantic  cactus,  orange  trees,  magnolia,  and 
various  other  vegetable  growths  unknown  in  tlie  north- 
ern i)art  of  the  State,  lent  a  charm  to  the  scene,  and 
our  visit  was  just  in  the  height  of  the  fruit  season, 
Avhich  was  abundant,  and  much  of  it  very  fine.  Peaches 
and  melons  of  all  kinds  are  in  this  climate  indigenous, 
and  the  fig  does  well,  although  care  of  it  must  be  taken 
in  the  winter,  as  a  slight  degree  of  cold  will  kill  the 
trees. 

A  few  days  after  arriving  I  was  laid  up  with  a  severe 
attack  of  bilious  fever,  and  was  removed  to  the  post 
hospital  in  the  suburbs  of  the  city,  but  soon  recovered, 
although  I  was  not  discharged  until  late  in  August. 

The  courtmartial  had  in  the  meantime  adjourned,  or 
at  least  the  case  in  which  I  was  summoned  had  been 
concluded,  and  my  comrades  had  started  back  to  Fort 
Eichardson,  taking  with  them  my  horse,  as  the  com- 
manding officer  had  deemed  it  best  for  them  to  do  so, 


190  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

there  being  at  the  time  no  cavalry  at  the  i)08t,  and 
consequently  no  one  to  take  care  of  it  during  my 
illness. 

Duruig  my  convalescence  I  ''took  in"  all  the  many 
(to  me)  novel  sights  of  the  place,  visited  the  old  mission 
of  San  Jose,  went  time  and  again  to  the  ruins,  or  rather 
the  remains,  of  the  Alamo,  and  again  wondered  where 
the  patriotism  of  the  people  was,  who  had  failed  to  pro- 
tect so  sacred  a  spot  from  desecration  and  decay. 

The  Mexican  quarter  of  the  city  presented  curious 
features,  particularly  after  night,  when  the  streets  were 
filled  with  tables  and  stands,  lighted  by  oil  torches,  and 
vocal  with  the  cries  of  the  vendors  of  tortillas^  tamales^ 
chili-con-carne^  and  cMli-col-arow ^  all  of  which  dishes  I 
of  course  partook  of,  but  failed  to  very  greatly  appre- 
ciate. Mexican  cooking  is  particularly  distinguished 
by  two  ingredients — -chilis  ■  or  red  pepper,  and  grease ; 
I  might  add,  onions  and  dirt,  the  latter  inevitably,  and 
apparently  inseparable  from  the  person  and  victuals  of 
the  "  Greaser,"  as  the  modern  descendant  of  Spaniard 
and  Indian  is  irreverently  called  by  the  Texan. 

One  Sunday  there  was  a  bull-fight,  but  it  was  a  tame 
and  disgusting  affair,  probably  so  far  out  of  its  proper 
latitude  and  native  soil  as  to  awaken  no  enthusiasm 
either  in  the  bull,  the  matador  or  the  spectators. 

About  the  end  of  August  the  doctor  pronounced  me 
fit  to  travel,  and  being  provided  with  "transi)ortation 
by  stage "  and  "  commutation  of  rations,"  I  left  San 
Antonio  one  fine  morning,  a  merchant  living  in  Austin 
being  the  only  other  passenger.  We  rolled  along  some 
five  or  six  miles  an  hour,  took  dinner  at  New  Braunfels, 
supper  at  Blanco,  reaching  Austin  about  midnight. 

Just  about  those  days  in  Texas,  I  think  there  were 
some  of  the  best  country  stage-stands  or  wayside  hotels 
in  the  world.     Nearly    everybody    in  the  South   was 


FIVE   YEARS    A    CAVALRYMAN.  191 

ruined  by  the  war,  and  after  the  •'  break-up  "  (the  elose 
of  the  war  was  always  s])oken  of  as  the  "  break-up  ") 
many  elegant  ])eople  hitlierto  unused  to  work  of  any 
kind  had  to  seek  livelihoods.  Widows,  cultivated  and 
refined,  thrown  on  their  own  resources,  often  found  a 
living  by  keejnng  hotels  along  the  thoroughfares,  for 
the  amount  of  travel  in  those  days  was  immense — 
twenty  thousand  soldiers,  and  all  the  vast  following  of 
the  army,  made  a  lot  of  custom,  and  the  result  was,  as 
stated,  the  best  stopping  places  imaginable.  The  fact 
is,  the  unequaled  broiled  or  "smothered"  chicken,  the 
hot  biscuits,  the  fragrant  coffee  (it  takes  a  Southern 
woman  to  make  this  just  right),  are,  as  I  write  in  these 
days, about  "the  brightest  spots  in  memory's  waste." 

I  remained  a  few  days  in  Austin,  and  then  proceeded 
to  Waco,  where  I  found  that  "old  man"  Sisk  and  his 
"  overland,"  heretofore  mentioned,  had  gone,  and  I  was 
compelled  to  lie  over  for  its  next  trip. 

I  suffered  a  relapse  while  at  Waco,  but  experienced 
such  kindness  at  the  hands  of  everybody  while  I  was 
sick,  particularly  from  a  certain  Dr.  Shaw  who  attended 
me,  and  others  of  the  citizens,  as  to  again  remind  me 
of  what  one  is  too  apt  to  forget,  that 

"One  toucli  of  nature  makes  the  whole  world  kin . ' ' 

The  trip  from  Waco  occupied  four  days — Hillsboro, 
Cleburne  and  Weatherford  being  the  stopping  places — 
the  fourth  day  bringing  iis  into  Jacksboro,  during  which 
"old"  Sisk  entertained  me  with  a  lot  of  tough  anec- 
dotes, that  at  least  served  to  relieve  the  tediousness 
of  the  journej. 

Arriving  at  Jacksboro,  I  found  that  my  company 
had  gone  to  Sulphur  Springs,  or  in  that  vicinity,  and 
were  performing  duties  in  connection  with  the  "  Freed- 
man's  Bureau,"  and  in  a  sort  of  police  duty,  rendered 


192  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

necessary  by  predatory  bands  of  armed  and  lawless 
men,  who  were  terrorizing  P^astern  Texas,  and  who,  in 
the  absence  of  civil  law,  were  having  things  their  own 
way. 

While  I  regretted  at  the  time  not  being  able  to  ac- 
company my  troop  on  these  duties,  I  have  since  been 
glad  I  was  not  with  them,  for  the  recollection  of  the 
"  doings  '^  of  the  boys  in  that  section  of  the  State 
during  this  period  adds  but  little  credit  to  the  record 
of  the  "  Sixth,"  either  officers  or  men. 

One  of  the  "  details'^  was  known,  and  is  still  remem- 
bered in  Wood,  Titus,  Bowie  and  adjacent  counties,  as 
"Chaffee's  Guerillas;"  but  I  confine  myself  in  these 
sketches  to  what  I  saw  and  took  part  in,  not  what  I 
heard  second-hand  from  others. 

As  I  wrrite,  many  queer  characters  among  the  men 
come  to  my  mind,  whose  names  I  had  almost  forgotten, 
among  them  one  fellow  universally  known  to  both 
officers  and  men  as  Banes.  An  Irishman,  of  course, 
he  pronounced  that  staple  article  of  army  food — beans — 
with  a  very  broad  accent,  until  one  day  a  comrade  said 
to  him,  "  Look  here !  I'll  bet  you  five  dollars  you  can't 
say  beans/''     "  Done,"    said  the   other.     "Xow,  then — 

banes  !     By ,  give  me  the  money! "     He  thoiKjht  he 

had  said  beans.  But  his  sobriquet  was  fixed  then  and 
there,  and  if  he  is  still  alive  and  still  a  soldier,  he  is 
still  Banes.  H^  was  an  Incorrigible  fellow,  a  good  sol- 
dier, but  slovenly.  One  day  at  inspection,  as  the 
officers  passed  along  the  rear  of  the  line,  Banes'  spurs 
were  noticed  to  be  very  rusty  behind,  while  his  accou- 
trements otherwise  were  unexcei)tionable.  The  officer 
called  attention  to  it,  but,  never  moving  a  muscle. 
Banes  replied :  "A  good  soldier,  sir,  never  looks  be- 
hind him."     The  reviewing    i)arty  passed  on,  with  a 


FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  193 

grin,  and  said  nothing  further,  for  Banes  ica.s  a  good 
soldier. 

A  queer  genius  was  at  this  time  appointed  "  Sergeant- 
Major"  of  the  regiment,  the  headquarters  of  which 
was  now  at  Jaeksboro,  named  Bruer,  a  German,  and 
who,  of  course^  had  been  a  Count  or  something  else  in 
his  native  land,  before  turning  up  in  the  "  Sixth"  as  a 
soldier.  Bruer  celebrated  his  promotion  by  a  party, 
duly  chronicled  in  "  The  Flea,"  in  some  verses,  w^hich, 
while  without  much  merit  as  poetry,  introduces  the 
names  of  all  the  well-known  non-commissioned  officers 
then  at  the  post,  and  if  perchance  any  of  them  are  yet 
extant,  and  should  see  them,  it  will  remind  them  of  the 
days  of  ^^  evig  ge'it  "  (lang  syne,  or  days  gone  by). 

Dkr    Bkitek's    Bakty. 
(After  Hans  Breitnuin.) 
Der  Bruer  gave  vou  barty, 

Vere  is  dot  barty  uow? 
Vere  are  de  glouds  vot  vanish 

From  off  de  moiindaiu's  prow? 
Vere  now  is  all  dot  viskey  buuch 

Dot  we  gonsnmed  dot  night? 
Gone,  like  de  days  of  poyhood,^ 

Gone,  in  de  evig  gcit ! 

Vere  is  der  gomic  Shivers? 

Vere  is  der  Sergeant  White? 
Vere  is  der  goot  old  Turner? — 

Dey  vos  all  dere  dot  night ; 
And — Jonah — too — der  steward , 

Vere  is  dot  veller  now? 
Von  Bothmar,  equhie  doctor, 

Der  first  in  every  row? 

Der  Conroy,  mit  his  Fenian  song, 

Und  Dixon,  mit  his  smile, 
Der  Coffin,  mit  his  boyish  face, 

So  smooth  like  castor  ile ; 
Und  Veeler,  mit  his  glowing  mug, 

So  round  like  der  full  moon ; 
Der  Bruer,  who  der  barty  gave, 

So  cunning  as  one  coon? 
Alas!  dey  drunk  der  viskey  up, 

Und  den  dey  vent  awas ; 
Dey  stopped  imdil  vos  nearly  dime 

Vor  breaking  of  der  day ; 


194  FIVE   YEAKS  A   CAVALRYMAN. 

Und  some  of  dem  vos  very  full , 
Uud  veil  upon  der  ground— 

Per  palance  glosed  der  barty  up 
Mit  von  pig  '  'valk  around. ' ' 

Und  so  mit  all  der  joys  of  life, 

Dey  last  put  for  a  space, 
Den  vanish  like  der  ribbles 

From  off  der  vater's  face. 
Und  Bruer's  barty— it  is  gone, 

Like  fading  summer  light, 
Ye'll  drink  to  it,  ven  e'er  ve  sigh, 

For  days  of  evig  geit ! 


FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  195 


CHAPTER  XXX. 


COURTMARTIAL  —  GENERAL,  FIELD  OFFICERS,  AND 
GARRISON  —  THE  GUARD-HOUSE  LAWYER  —  THE 
GUARD-HOUSE  DOG — THE  "  BLIND  " — BELOW  PAR — 
THE  MARINE — "  WE'LL  FINE  HIM  TEN  DOLLARS." 

The  guard-house!  How  many  soldiers  are  there  who, 
at  some  time  or  another,  have  not  found  themselves 
inside  its  walls  !  Very  few,  indeed,  are  they,  who  during 
their  term  of  service  can  say:  "They  never  had  me 
in  the  mill ; "  for  sooner  or  later,  for  some  offense, 
real  or  fancied,  the  best  of  soldiers  may  be  caught 
tripping,   and  the  morning  report  chronicle  the    fact 

in     the    brief    remark,   "  Private  .  from   duty    to 

confinement."  In  fact,  I  have  heard  more  than  one 
old  army  officer  remark  that  "a  man  was  never  fit  to 
be  a  non-commissioned  officer  until  he  had  been  a  few 
times  in  the  guard-house  or  before  a  courtmartial." 
Although  not  fully  able  to  endorse  this  opinion,  yet 
experience  seems  to  be  the  only  school  most  people 
can  learn  in,  and  familiarity  with  the  pitfalls  that  beset 
our  paths  enables  us  to  avoid  them — or  should. 

The  grand  tribunal  of  the  army  is  the  "  General 
Courtmartial,"  convened  usually  at  some  centrally  or 
conveniently  located  military  post,  for  its  members  are 
aJways  drawn  from  several  different  commands  and  such 
courts  are  convened  from  time  to  time,  as  aggravated 


196  FIVE    YEARS   A   CAVALRYMAN. 

or  iiiiportaut  cases  accumulate.  For  miuor  offeuses 
there  is  the  "garrison  court"  or  the  "field  officers' 
court,"  but  as  their  jurisdiction  is  limited  to  less  gi-ave 
crimes,  '*  plain  drunks "  or  smaller  offenses  against 
military  law,  not  much  importance  is  attached  to  them. 
But  on  the  operations  and  decisions  of  the  general 
courtmartial  centres  much  of  the  interest  of  life  in  the 
garrison;  its  sentences  are  canvassed  in  anticipation 
and  discussed  in  retrospect,  and  he  who  has  oftenest 
been  before  one  becomes  a  kind  of  oracle  among  his 
fellows,  and  is  supposed  to  have  imbibed  deej)  draughts 
of  legal  lore  from  his  experiences.  Such  a  chap  fre- 
quently becomes  a  nuisance  to  the  officers,  and  is 
usually  known  in  camp  as  a  "  guard-house  lawyer." 
When  a  "general  court"  is  announced  to  convene  at  a 
post,  the  services  of  the  "lawyer"  are  in  demand. 
His  advice  is  asked  as  to  the  line  of  defense  to  be 
])ursued,  he  aids  the  prisoners  to  prepare  statements 
raid  writes  them  out  for  them,  and  if  at  any  time  he 
has  been  acquitted  himself,  or  received  a  sentence 
incommensurate  to  the  offense  for  which  he  was  tried, 
h's  opinions  are  enhanced  proi)ortionately  in  value. 
Who  is  there  who  cannot  bring  to  mind  just  such  a 
character  as  the  g.  h.  lawyer  ? 

Generally  speaking,  the  members  of  a  courtmartial 
consider  being  detailed  for  such  purpose  a  "picnic," 
for  they  are  relieved  from  all  other  duties  while  in 
attendance  on  its  sittings,  and,  with  the  exception  of 
the  Judge  Advocate,  have  a  good  time,  unless,  as  occa- 
sionally hapi)ens,  some  grim  old  field  officer  is  president, 
in  which  case  the  younger  members  have  to  attend  to 
the  proceedings.  When,  however,  an  easy  young  officer 
is  at  the  head  of  the  table,  eating  apples,  drawing  cari- 
catures, detailing  funny  stories  and  gossip  of  other 
posts,  adjourning  every  thirtj^  miiuites  to  take  a  drink, 


FIVE    YEARS    A    CAVALRYMAN.  197 

and  similar  ''  labors,"  serve  to  protracjt  the  sitting;  of 
the  court,  and  while  not  conducive  to  an  understanding 
in  the  case  in  hand,  it  don't  affect  the  verdict  much, 
which  is  usually  determined  on  by  the  i)resident  and 
Judge  xVdvocate,  the  others  acciuiescing.  xVny  olticer 
or  enlisted  ukui  may  employ  counsel,  military  or  civil,  but 
in  the  absence  of  any  such,  tlie  Judge  Advocate  repre- 
sents both  the  i)rosecut'on  and  defense;  and,  after  all, 
I  judge  that  justice  is  quite  as  nearly  satisfied  as  before 
any  civil  tribunal,  where  a  case  is  left  to  the  tender 
mercies  and  intellectual  abll'ty  of  a  petit  jury. 

While  ''  field  officers'  "  courts  and  ''  garrison  "  courts 
are  cognizant  of  and  have  jurisdiction  over  a  less 
serious  class  of  offenses,  yet  in  one  way  these  minor 
courts  are  more  productive  of  demoralization  and  de- 
sertion than  any  other  cause.  For  instance,  at  a  post 
of  several  companies,  pay-day  is  often,  in  fact  generally, 
attended  with  considerable  drunkenness,  and  for  days, 
often,  many  of  the  men  will  absent  thenj selves  and  do 
all  sorts  of  unmilitary  things,  at  times  behaving  dis- 
gracefully. Such  conduct,  of  course,  merits  punishment, 
but  instead  of  adiuinisterlng  some  wholesome  extra 
fatigue  or  other  duty,  the  Aictim  is  sent  to  walk  on  a 
"ring"  in  front  of  the  guard-house,  carrying  on  his 
shoulder  a  b-g  fence  rail  from  reveille  to  retreat,  and 
perhaps  has  a  "  blind  "  of  ten  dollars  imposed  out  of 
his  next  })ay.  Here,  now,  is  a  man  robbed  of  his  scanty 
pay,  his  self-respect  destroyed  by  being  made  a  laugh- 
ing stock,  he  looks  forward  to  receiving  but  a  few 
dollars  at  next  [)ay-day,  and  the  first  time  he  has  a  good 
and  seasonable  oi)portunity  to  do  so,  he  deserts,  and 
the  government,  although  ahead  on  the  ''ten  dollars 
blind "  imposed,  is  loser  one  soldier,  one  government 
horse,  one  saddle,  one  carbine,  one  pistol,  and  all  the 
other  accoutrements,  worth  in   those   days,  when  our 


198  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

horses  cost  Uncle  Sam  over  one  liundred  and  lifty 
dollars  each,  a  total  of  three  hundred  or  four  hundred 
dollars. 

The  aggregate  amount  of  pay  stoi)ped  from  the  men 
at  Fort  Richardson  in  1869  and  1870  must  have  been 
enormous,  and  would  make  quite  an  offset  against  the 
"  ninety-cents-a-foot "  lumber  used  in  the  construction 
of  officers'  quarters,  baby  wagons,  desks,  and  other 
"impedimenta,"  accounted  for  as  "properly  expended 
in  the  service." 

After  the  reduction  of  the  army  in  18(39  and  1870, 
and  the  consequent  consolidation  of  certain  regiments, 
the  "  exigencies  of  the  service "  transferred  to  our 
regiment,  as  Major,  an  infantry  officer,  a  superannuated 
old  chap,  who  appeared  to  regard  a  horse  with  as  much 
alarm  as  the  aborigines  at  San  Salvador  did  at  the  first 
sight  of  the  Spanish  cavaliers.  This  old  fellow,  not 
being  of  any  other  apparent  use,  and  having  a  wise  and 
owlish  expression  of  countenance,  was  soon  after  his 
arrival  constituted  a  field  officers'  court,  and  proceeded 
to  business.  On  warm  and  pleasant  days  he  would 
hold  his  "court''  under  the  shade  of  a  tree  near  his 
quarters,  and  frequently  combine  his  military  duty  with 
gome  little  domestic  affair,  such  as  holding  the  baby  in 
one  arm  while  he  flourished  a  copy  of  the  "  charges  " 
with  the  other ;  screwed  up  the  burrs  on  his  ambulance, 
or  fished  in  the  creek,  while  the  prisoner  under  guard 
stood  by.  He  probably  did  this  for  the  reason  Mrs. 
Partington  took  her  knitting  to  church  (in  order  "to 
keep  her  mind  on  the  subject"),  for  his  mind  was 
always  clear  on  the  "  finding,"  no  matter  how  little  at- 
tention he  had  paid  to  the  testimony  or  the  merits  of 
the  case. 

One  day,  while  putting  up  a  swing  for  his  children 
under  a  tree,  a  prisoner  was  brought  to  him  for  trial, 


FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  199 

and  as  he  climbed  up  to  fasten  the  ropes,  asked  him: 
"  How  do  you  plead — guilty  or  not  guilty  I "  "  Not 
guilty,  sir!"  "Ah!  let  me  see  —  ever  been  before 
me  on  any  charge  ?  "  "  No  !  "  "  Well,  then,  we'll  have 
to  let  you  off  easy" — up  to  this  time  he  was  succeed- 
ing finely  in  fastening  the  rope  at  the  desired  i)lace, 
but  just  then  his  foot  slipped,  and  as  he  came  down  by 
the  run,  shouted  to  the  sentry — "  take  him  away,  sir ! " 
To  his  little  boy — "  We'll  have  to  fine  him  ten  dollars, 
Paul!" 

Of  course  there  are  in  all  commands  certain  incor- 
rigible and  worthless  fellows,  who,  while  perhai)S  not 
exactly  vicious,  yet  are  unfortunate  in  their  misdeeds, 
and  spend,  first  and  last,  from  one  cause  and  another, 
the  greater  part  of  their  days  in  "  durance."  Their 
faces  become  familiar  among  the  groups  of  prisoners 
seen  trudging  after  the  slop  wagon,  cleaning  up  the 
parade  ground,  cutting  wood  for  the  officers,  or  similar 
interesting  pursuits,  and  who  finally  leave  the  service 
with  a  "  bob-tail  "  discharge. 

In  calling  up  these  phases  of  army  life  I  am  re- 
minded of  a  singular  case  of  canine  affection  on  the 
part  of  a  dog  that  became  a  guard-house  fixture  at 
several  of  the  posts  occupied  by  portions  of  the  regi- 
ment for  more  than  four  years.  ''  Old  Taylor  " — a  dog 
of  the  genuine  "  yaller "  species,  large,  shaggy  and 
powerful — attached  himself  to  a  prisoner  at  Buffalo 
Si)ring8  in  1SG7,  and  remained  a  hanger-on  or  fixture 
thenceforth.  He  followed  the  prisoners  in  the  si)ring 
of  1868  to  Fort  Eichardson,  and  wlien  the  headquarters 
and  first  six  companies  of  the  regiment  proceeded  to 
Kansas,  in  the  spring  of  1871,  he  took  up  his  line  of 
march  with  them  and  faithfully  adhered  to  the  fortunes 
of  les  miserahUs,  trudging  along  the  road  for  seven 
hundred  miles  and   keeping  right  with  the  guard  and 


200  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

prisoners  all  the  while.  In  rain  or  shine,  heat  or  cold, 
old  Taylor  might  be  seen  lying  in  front  of  the  guard- 
house;  when  "fatigue  call "  sounded  he  would  follow 
one  or  other  of  the  i)arties  to  their  work  and  return 
with  them  at  meal  time,  sure  of  receiving  his  due  share 
of  their  sometimes  scanty  rations.  On  his  own 
"  stamping  ground  " — the  guard-house — he  was  a  pug- 
nacious and  doughty  animal ;  away  from  Jiome^  although 
he  very  seldom  strolled  off,  he  was  an  arrant  coward, 
except  when  backed  by  his  friends  the  prisoners. 
While  he  would  apparently  become  much  attached  to 
men  who  were  a  long  time  in  confinement,  yet  the 
moment  they  were  released  he  ceased  to  recognize 
them,  evidently  regarding  them  as  having  "gone  back" 
on  their  friends.  All  honor  to  old  Taylor !  Unlike  his 
superior  animal,  man,  he  stuck  right  loyally  to  his 
friends  in  adversity,  and  seemed  proud  of  the  com- 
panionship. 

Among  the  finest  soldiers  in  mj  company  was  Ser- 
geant Swift,  who  succeeded  me  as  First  Sergeant. 
Fifteen  years  service  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  in  the 
United  States  marine  corps,  had  made  him  a  fine  sol- 
dier and  earned  for  him  the  nickname  of  "  the  marine." 
The  Sergeant  was  (an  unusual  thing  for  an  old  soldier) 
very  close  and  very  thrifty,  and  hated  to  spend  a  cent 
unnecessarily.  One  time  he  received  a  one  hundred 
dollar  bill  in  getting  his  pay;  and  in  those  days,  when 
greenback  money  was  always  discounted  thirty  per 
cent.,  and  the  prices  of  everything  were  in  coin,  it  was 
sometimes  difticult  to  get  so  large  a  bill  changed. 
Furthermore,  the  native  Texans  had  no  banks  in  ante 
helhim  days ;  their  only  medium  was  coin,  and  they 
looked  with  much  suspicion  on  our  greenbacks,  more 
particularly  from  their  recent  experience  in  Confed- 
erate money.     Swift  was  often  sent  out  on  detached 


FIVE    YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  201 

duty  into  the  settleiiieuts  ;  lie  would  «o  to  a  farmhouse, 
buy  a  ham,  order  a  lot  of  bread  baked  for  his  party, 
and  then  proffer  his  big  bill  in  i)ayment,  which  of  course 
the  people  couldn't  change,  and  Swift  was  ahead. 
This  went  on  for  some  time,  and  had  gotten  to  be  a 
standing  joke  among  the  boys,  until  the  Sergeant  was 
sent  down  into  Denton  or  Collin  county  with  a  detail 
of  ten  or  twelve  men.  He  ordered  liberal  refresh- 
ments for  them,  amounting  to  several  dollars,  and  upon 
offering  the  hundred  dollar  bill,  was  disgusted  to  have 
the  old  farmer  discount  it  thirty  per  cent.,  take  out 
eleven  dollars  for  the  "grub,"  and  hand  him  in  change 
fifty-nine  Mexican  dollars  !  The  boys  enjoyed  it  hugely 
and  never  "  let  up  "  on  the  Sergeant  afterward. 

This  man  came  to  Jacksboro  with  the  first  troops 
after  the  war — July,  18(36 — and  his  last  duty  on  the 
frontier  was  removing  the  bodies  from  the  old  cemetery 
at  Fort  Eichardson  to  the  National  cemetery  at  San 
Antonio  in  1883,  some  years  after  its  abandonment  by 
the  military.  He.  too,  has  joined  the  "  silent  majority," 
attended  his  last  roll-call — his  term  of  service  honor- 
ably ended. 


202  FIVE    YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 


CHAPTEE  XXXI. 


"  LOOKS  LIKE  A  YEARLING  HAD  DIED  'LONGSIDE  HIS 
plate" — OLD  BRINDLE — THE  GREAT  AMERICAN 
AFFIDAVIT  MAN — THE  ''  CUSTOM  OF  THE  SERVICE  " — 
THE  BOARD  OF  SURVEY — THE  SUTLER. 

Time  :  A  cold,  rainy  night  in  early  fall.  Place  :  Cap- 
tain Eastin'8  old  store,  a  rousing  fire,  every  vacant  box 
and  nail-keg  occupied  by  a  soldier  or  ''old  settler,"  a 
goodly  number  also  kicking  their  heels  along  the  coun- 
ters. Alas!  as  I  look  back  twenty  years,  how  many  of 
them  have  gone  to  "  the  undiscovered  country."  Henry 
Thompson,  Wiley  Eobbins,  "old"  Judge  Williams, 
George  Vanderburg — the  latter  still  with  us,  the  others 
"  passed  over " — these  and  many  more  pass  by  in 
shadowy  silence  as  I  write,  bringing  vividly  back  to  my 
mental  vision  those  pleasant  hours,  gone  l>y  forever. 
It  certainly  is  a  blessed  phase  of  the  human  mind  that, 
as  CA'ents  recede  from  us,  the  rough  and  unpleasant 
features  become  softened  in  retrospect,  and 

' '  1  )istauce  lends  enchantrnt-iit  to  the  view, ' ' 

thus  accounting  for  our  fondness  for  comparing  unfavor- 
ably the  more  recent  with  the  more  remote,  and  dwelling 
fondly  on  joys  departed.  Then,  perhaps  we  occasion- 
feel  the  restraint  of  the  more  stra'ght-laced  conditions 
of  the   society   of   the   present,   compared   with   the 


FIVE    YEARS    A    CAVALRYMAN.  203 

free-and-easy  manners  of  the  times  of  which  we  write, 
and  we  may  sometimes  involuntarily 

'  'Sigh  for  the  flaj's  whtMi  untramelled  by  law. ' ' 

Perhaps  on  such  an  evening  as  I  call  to  mind,  Judge 
Williams  had  entertained  us  with  some  tough  story  of 
his  early  life  in  Indiana,  or  of  later  adventurer  in  tlie 
early  settlement  of  Jack  county,  of  which  he  was  one 
of  the  very  first  jnoneers.  Henry  Thomi>son,  maybe, 
had  related  experiences  of  the  war,  during  which  he 
was  an  exile  from  his  people  here,  and  with  Wiley 
Bobbins  and  others  had  gone  North.  George  Vander- 
burg  had,  likely,  portrayed  his  experience  in  riding 
"  Old  Brindle  "  in  war-times — the  only  case  on  record 
of  a  steer  being  "broken  to  the  saddle,"  and  the 
"  Captain''  told  us  a- late  funny  experience  of  his  while 
gathering  up  a  herd  of  cattle  out  beyond  Belknap.  It 
seems  he  stopped  one  night  at  a  ranch  where  the  family 
consisted  of  a  woman  and  a  couple  of  pretty  girls,  and 
he  remarked  that  "as  he  wasn't  very  hungry  any  little 
thing  would  do  him."  There  was  a  huge  platter  of 
ribs  of  beef  on  the  suj)per  table,  and  as  he  "polished" 
one  after  another  and  laid  them  by  his  plate  in  a  con- 
stantly increasing  pile,  he  could  hear  the  girls  giggling 
out  in  the  kitchen,  and  one  say  to  the  other :  "  Oh,  no  ! 
!}('  Avasn't  hungry!  Doggoned  if  it,  don't  look  like  a 
yearling  had  died  'longside  his  plate  !" 

When  any  particular  state  of  affairs  exists  in  the 
army  that  it  is  impossible  to  reconcile  with  or  account 
for,  either  by  reference  to  the  "regulations,"  existing 
orders  or  common  sense,  it  is  covered  by.  the  compre- 
hensive classification  of  "a  custom  of,  the  service." 
And  yet  these  recognized  ".customs"  are  a  kind  of 
unwritten  law,  but  regarded  by  both  officers  and  men 
as   bearing  —  if  not   quite  inspired  —  about   the    same 


204  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

relation  to  tlie  "  Regulations  "  as  the  Apocrypha  does 
to  Holy  Writ.  Looming  up  largely  among  my  recol- 
lections of  established  "  customs "  i)re-eminent  in 
usefulness  and  importance,  is  the  institution  known  as 
the  "  affidavit  man."  Is  anj^  public  property  stolen,  lost 
or  destroyed,  the  services  of  the  "  affidavit  man  "  come 
into  play,  and  by  the  simple  process  of  "  holding  up 
his  right  hand  "  and  signing  his  name  to  the  document, 
a  wagon-train  or  an  old  canteen  are  with  equal  facility 
"  cleared  off  the  papers,''  and  the  interests  of  the  ser- 
vice assured.  No  well-regulated  Quartermaster's  de- 
partment, nor  even  comi)any,  is  in  good  working  order 
without  at  least  one  of  these  easy-conscienced  fellows, 
and,  if  two  of  them  can  be  had,  things  are  as  they  should 
be,  and  all  danger  of  any  "  deficiency  "  obviated.  The 
most  accomplished  chap  of  this  kind  I  ever  knew  was 
an  old  soldier  named  Bradley,  at  that  time  Quarter- 
master Sergeant  of  "  L "  troop  of  my  regiment.  He 
was  an  Irishman,  well  educated,  smart,  witty  of  course, 
with  talents  enough  for  any  position,  but 

'  'The  divil  and  whiskey  held  him  down, ' ' 

and  he  had  been  long  in  the  service.  The  whole  pro- 
cess of  "  keeping  the  i)apers  straight "  Joe  had  reduced 
to  a  science,  and  the  opportunity  or  occasion  to  make 
a  good  affidavit  he  "  rolled  like  a  sweet  morsel  under 
his  tongue." 

He  did  the  cheekiest  thing  once  I  ever  knew  of,  and 
it  "went  through,"  too.  The  company  cook  of  his 
company  deserted  on  the  evening  of  the  day  on  which 
eleven  days  rations  had  been  drawn  for  the  whole 
company  (about  nine  hundred  rations),  and  the  next 
morning  Joe  presented  himself  before  the  post  adjutant 
with  a  ration-return  for  the  full  number  of  rations  drawn 
the  previous  day,  backed  by  an  affidavit  to  the  effect 
that  said  cook  had  deserted  and  taken  all  the  rations 


FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  205 

with  him.  "Old  Paddy"  was  dubious,  but  it  was 
"sworu  and  subscribed  to,"  the  rations  were  issued  tlie 
second  time,  and  Joe's  "company  fund"  was  just  so 
mucli  ahead. 

There  was  in  my  company  a  very  loose  character, 
one  John  Quinn,  a  fellow  who  had  been  born  and  raised 
among-  horses,  an  excellent  hand  at  caring  for  an  animal, 
but  capable  of  doing  anything  in  order  to  get  whiskey, 
from  "shoving"  a  sack  of  forage  to  making  an  affidavit 
on  a  whole  corral  of  stock.  He  had  earned  and  re- 
ceived among  the  troops  the  sobriquet  of  the  "  Great 
American  Affidavit  Maker,"  and  exceedingly  useful  he 
was  in  that  capacity,  ready  to  swear  to  anything  that 
was  "  short,"  no  matter  whether  he  knew  aught  about 
the  case  or  not. 

We  had  on  the  picket  line  at  Buffalo  Springs  three 
wretched  old  horses  that  were  suffering  with  distemper, 
and  the  commanding  officer  had  directed  my  company 
commander  to  have  them  shot.  I  accordingly  sent .  a 
Corporal  and  two  men  (one  of  whom  was  Quinn,  afore- 
said) to  take  them  two  or  three  miles  from  the  camp 
and  shoot  them,  and  while  they  were  gone,  presumably 
performing  that  duty,  I  prepared  an  affidavit  for  each 
one  of  the  men  to  make  when  they  returned.  In  a 
couple  of  hours  they  came  back,  carrying-  the  halters 
with  them,  announced  that  the  horses  had  been  duly 
shot,  and  proceeded  before  the  Adjutant  and  "  cussed 
them  off"  the  i)apers.  During  afternoon  stables  the 
following  day,  as  I  walked  back  and  forth  along  the 
picket  line,  my  gaze  turned  toward  the  prairie,  and 
here  came  the  three  supposed  deceased  horses,  gaily 
trotting  in  toward  the  corral !  The  three  affidavit  gen- 
tlemen were  immediately  overhauled  for  an  explanation, 
but  I  believe  they  talked  themselves  out  of  the  dif- 
ficulty, for  there  was  nothing  subsequently  said  about 


206  FIVE    YEARS    A    CAVALRYMAN. 

it ;  the  three  animals  were  "  dropi)ed,"  and  two  of  them 
continued  for  long  years  in  the  service,  and  no  one  was 
^'responsible"  for  them.  It  appeared  afterward  that 
the  Corporal  (who  was  at  the  time  mail  carrier  to  Jacks- 
boro)  left  them  out  in  the  timber,  intending  to  pick 
them  up  the  next  trip  he  made  with  the  mail  and  sell 
them  there,  but  the  brutes  got  loose  and  came  home, 
not  knowing  that  they  were  "  properly  accounted  for." 

A  few  days  after  my  company  took  post  at  Fort 
Eichardson,  in  the  si)ring  of  1H()8,  I  found  that  several 
articles  of  ordnance  property  were  short,  and  of  course 
sent  for  Quinn,  who  soon  arrived  at  my  quarters.  Be- 
fore proceeding  to  business  I  intimated  to  him  that  he 
would  tind  "something"  behind  the  door,  which  he 
found,  and  forthwith,  having  reduced  the  contents 
materially,  was  ready  for  any  emergency.  Said  I, 
"  Quinn,  how  many  lariats  and  picket  pins  were  there 
on  that  wagon  that  upset  on  Crooked  creek — the  time 
Lucy  nearly  drowned — was  it  twelve  or  thirteen  ! " 
Assuming  an  air  of  honesty,  and  apparently  engaged  in 
deep  thought,  he  replied:  "Why,  Sergeant!  don't  you 
remember  ?  There  were  nineteen  of  them  !  "  I  did  7wt 
remember,  but  I  wrote  the  affidavit  for  nineteen,  as 
Quinn  said,  and  of  course  he  went  off  and  swore  to  it. 
Poor  Quinn !  he  was  found  dead  on  the  floor  of  the 
barracks  shortly  before  his  term  of  service  expired, 
and  on  the  very  morning  his  com])any  marched  out  of 
Fort  Eichardson  for  Kansas.  Joe  Bradley  died  at 
Fort  Mason  in  the  summer  of  1808,  and  in  the  loss  of 
he  and  Quinn  the'  service  was  dei)rived  of  the  two 
chamj)ion  affidavit  men  that  it  contained. 

Nearly  as  loose^-  but  with  a  little  more  show  of  regu- 
larity about  the  process,  is  (or  was)  the  institution 
known  as  a  "board  of  survey,"  another  time-honored 
*'  custom   of  the  service."     For  instance,  the  Quarter- 


}•') 


;!!i=>; 


FIVE  YEAKS   A   CAVALRYMAN.  207 

master  or  commissary  receives  a  lot  of  stores  that  he 
desires  condemned,  or  is  short  of  stores  that  he  must 
make  up,  he  a])plies  for  a  '*  board  of  surv^ey,"  which  is 
ordered  to  convene  as  soon  as  i)racticable.  If  the 
"board"  is  on  a  lot  of  commissary  stores,  all  the  mem- 
bers are  sure  to  attend,  for  there  is  certain  to  be  a 
lunch ;  but  usually  one,  or  at  most  two,  of  the  members 
proceed  to  the  business  required  of  it,  viz :  to  find  out 
from  the  officer  who  is  in  the  predicament,  and  asked 
for  the  "  survey,"  just  what  he  wants  done,  and  then 
makes  out  the  proceeding's,  stating  that  "  having  ma- 
turel}^  considered  and  carefully  investigated,"  etc., 
"  finds  " — that  is,  they  mulct  the  government,  or  occa- 
sionally lay  the  responsibility  on  the  contractor ,  and 
clear  the  officer  as  a  matter  of  course,  and  if  in  so  doing 
they  can  find  son^e  soldier  to  share  the  responsibility 
with  the  freighter,  so  much  the  better ;  they  thereby 
'further  the  ends  of  justice;"  generally,  however,  they 
'are  unable  to  fix  the  responsibility,  but  in  their 
opinion,"  etc. 

To  the  facility  with  which  defalcations  and  losses  of 
various  kinds  can  be  accounted  for  and  "  covered  "  in 
the  service,  and  the  comparative  rarity  with  which 
officers  are  held  accountable,  may  in  a  great  measure 
be  attributed  the  enormous  cost  of  our  little  army  as 
compared  with  the  great  armies  of  the  world. 

But  I  must  hasten  on ;  other  "  customs  of  the  service  '^ 
demand  a  passing  word,  not  least  among  which  must 
be  noticed  that  institution  or  device  known  formerly 
as  the  sutler — as  the  post-trader  in  later  days — but  his 
importance  as  one  of  the  best  known  features  of  the 
army  demands  rather  more  space  than  can  be  spared 
for  its  consideration  in  this  chapter. 


208  FIVE    YEARS   A   CAVALRYMAN. 


CHAPTER  XXXII. 


THE  SUTLER — THE  COMPANY  FUND — "  PIGGY  "  WELSH — 
THE  POST  FUND  —  SUDSVILLE  —  THE  COLORED 
TROOPS — EXTRACTS  FROM  "THE  FLEA" — WAS  THIS 
A  FRONTIER? 

Before  and  during-  the  war,  and  up  to  about  the 
period  of  its  close,  the  "  sutler  " — so  called — was  ap- 
pointed by  the  President  and  Secretary  of  War,  one 
for  each  regiment,  and  when  the  command  was  scat- 
tered, a  few  companies  at  each  station,  the  sutler  would 
establish  little  trading  posts  with  each  detachment. 
The  sutler,  under  the  regulations  of  the  old  army,  had 
many  privileges ;  his  bills  against  the  men  were  col- 
lected at  the  pay-table,  he  was  [)rovided  with  trans- 
portation under  some  circumstances,  his  charges  were 
regulated  by  law,  and,  upon  the  whole,  he  was  not  a 
necessary  evil,  but  a  real  convenience  to  both  officers 
and  men. 

First-class  merchants  obtained  regimental  sutler- 
ships  and  conducted  the  business  in  a  legitimate  man- 
ner, and  little  complaint  was  heard.  But  the  regular 
sutler  was  discontinued,  and  was  succeeded  by  a  class 
of  small  dealers  officially  known  as  "post-traders," 
this  change  taking  place  on  July  1,  18G7,  much  to 
the  detriment  of  the  service  and  to  the  comfort  and 
morals  of  the  men.     As  the  government  at  that  time 


FIVE    YEARS    A    CAVAT.RYMAN.  209 

made  no  provision  for  the  small  tlioiisand  and  one 
tliin«>s  that  soldiers  need — the  blackin<»:,  thread,  buttons, 
tobacco,  matches,  and  so  on— a  shop  of  some  kind  was 
indis])ensable  to  officers  as  well  as  men. 

Now,  if  the  post-trader  had  been  in  all  cases  a  fair 
man,  satisfied  with  reasonable  prices  or  ]>rohts,  and 
restricted  in  the  amounts  he  sold  the  men,  the  evil 
would  have  been  much  less  than  it  was.  The  army 
regulations  reijuired  that  a  "council  of  administration," 
a  board  composed  of  three  ranking  officers,  ai)pointed 
by  the  i)Ost  commander,  should  visit  the  post-trader's 
store  at  stated  periods,  go  through  his  stock,  see  that 
he  kept  nothing  for  sale  of  an  improper  character 
(whiskey,  of  course,  not  coming  under  this  heading), 
and  lix  his  prices  at  a  decent  i)rofit.  This  was  the 
fheoretical  duty  of  the  "council;"  in  practice,  they 
sampled  the  sutler's  whiskey,  smoked  his  cigars,  i)ar- 
took  of  an  elegant  free  lunch,  "set  up"  for  the  occa- 
sion, and  blandly  winked  at  the  scale  of  prices,  reducing 
sulphur  matches  from  fifteen  cents  to  ten  cents  a  box, 
and  then  having  performed  the  duty,  and  made  them- 
selves "solid"  with  the  post-trader,  adjourned  sine  die. 

The  sutler's  store  was  always  i)rovided  with  a  private 
loafing  place  for  the  officers,  most  of  whom  "lived  be- 
yond their  i)ay,"  like  "  Captain  Jinks,"  and  often  being- 
unable  to  settle  their  accounts,  and  thus  subject  the 
trader  to  a  loss ;  the  latter  was  compelled  to  make  both 
ends  meet  by  charging  exorbitant  prices  to  the  enlisted 
men,  he  having  a  "dead  thing"  on  them,  collecting  his 
pay,  as  he  did,  at  the  pay-table.  Ag-ain,  he  got  even 
with  the  officers  by  "  shaving  "  their  pay-rolls  in  advance 
at  fabulous  and  ruinous  rates  of  discount,  for  be  it  re- 
membered that  at  this  time  on  the  frontier  money 
commanded  five  ])er  cent,  per  month  interest,  and  often 
ten  per  cent,  was  demanded  and  paid. 


210  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

In  order  to  improve  the  food  of  the  trooi)S  any  sav- 
ings of  portions  of  the  ration  (except  flour)  is  permitted, 
and  the  articles  so  saved  may  be  sold  or  exchanged 
for  vegetables  or  other  additions  to  the  "  mess "  not 
furnished  by  the  government,  the  amount  so  saved  and 
expended  being  known  as  the  "  company  fund."  Of 
course  every  soldier  is  a  chronic  "kicker"  and  grum- 
bler; it  is  one  of  the  few  inalienable  rights  or  rather 
privileges  he  has,  and  he  never  misses  an  opportunity 
to  indulge  in  it.  The  army  ration,  as  constituted  in  my 
time,  was  badly  proportioned,  part  of  it  being  not  only 
ample  but  even  unnecessarily  liberal,  while  the  two 
important  items  of  meat  and  vegetables  were  altogether 
inadequate,  particularly  the  latter,  which  was  practically 
ignored,  unless  old  army  beans  and  ancient  rice  can  be 
regarded  as  "fresh  vegetables."  Furthermore,  the 
manner  in  which  the  company  savings  were  expended 
was  unsatisfactory,  in  most  companies  the  Captain 
taking  sole  charge  of  it. 

In  regularly  constituted  garrisons,  where  there  was 
a  post-bakery,  the  saving  on  the  flour,  which  is  very 
considerable,  was  known  as  the  "  i)0st-fund,"  and,  as 
the  expenditure  of  this  is  under  control  Of  the  Adjutant, 
when  it  is  intelligently  applied,  it  adds  greatly  to  the 
comfort  of  the  trooi)S.  In  the  last  days  of  Fort  Rich- 
ardson this  "fund"  provided  a  tine  reading-room,  sup- 
plied with  all  the  magazines  and  papers  of  the  day;  a 
well-selected  library  of  over  eighteen  hundred  volumes, 
and  contributed  toward  the  maintenance  of  the  mag- 
nificent band.  Besides,  each  cbmiiknj^  had  hot  and 
cold  Water  ranges,  nice  table  furnitu'i'ie,  and  altogether 
a  degree  of  comfort  unknown  in  tii'j^  experience. 

One  time  at  Fort  Eichardson  the  post-baker,  one 
"Piggy"  Welsh,  a  civilian,  but  formerly  a  soldier,  a 
very    disreputable  fellow,  converted   all   the  hops  on 


FIVE    YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  211 

liaiul  into  some  kind  of  a  beer,  on  which  he  and  his 
assistants  got  very  drunk.  Colonel  Starr  expressed 
great  regret  to  "Piggy  "that  he  (Piggy),  being  now  a 
citizen,  he  couldn't  well  hang  him,  but  he  escorted  him 
out  of  camp  to  the  music  of  the  drum,  threatening  all 
manner  of  vengeance  on  him  if  he  ever  returned,  which 
lie  never  did,  and  we  saw  him  no  more. 

Sometime  before  this  occurrence  "  Piggy '*  came  to 
me  one  day  with  a  comically  sheepish  look  on  his  face, 
and  said  he  wished  me  to  write  a  letter  for  him  to  his 
girl.  I  got  readj^  and  asked  him  to  tell  me  what  to  say 
to  her.  "  Och  !  you  know  yourself,"  he  replied.  And 
finally  finding  that  he  could  not  find  words  to  meet  liis 
views,  I  wrote  a  thrilling  and  overwhelming  epistle  for 
him,  freely  interspersed  with  such  scraps  of  affectionate 
poetry  as  came  to  my  mind.  When  I  read  it  over  to 
him  he  fairly  shouted  with  joy:  "Och!  Sergeant,  if 
that  don't  bralher  heart,  nothin'  will!" 

Situated  on  the  outskirts  of  every  military  post  may 
be  seen  a  collection  of  huts,  old  tents,  picket  houses 
and  ''  dugouts,"  an  air  of  squalor  and  dirt  pervading 
the  locality,  and  troops  of  shock-headed  children  and 
slovenly  looking  females  of  various  colors  completing 
the  ])icture.  These  are  the  quarters  of  the  married 
soldiers  and  of  the  laundresses,  known  in  army  parlance 
as  "  Sudsville."  Each  tr^op  of  cavalry  was  allowed 
four  laundresses,  who  were  rationed,  and  did  the  wash- 
mg  of  the  men  at  a  fixed  price,  the  same  being  guaran- 
teed them,  they  receiving  tJi.eir.pay  a-t  the  pf^y-table. 

The  "  officers'  line  "  and,  their  families  always  form  the 
opposite  side  of  the  garrisQii  frqm  the  troops,  and  as  the 
subjects  of  interest  in  an  isolatecj  camp  are  compara- 
tively few,  and  human  nature  in  or  out  of  the  army  is  the 
same, a  military;  post  comes  to  resemble  a  littl^  country 


212  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

village;  gossip  and  scandal  are  rife,  and  in  the  vitiated 
atinos})liere  of  the  army,  one  so  disposed  need  never 
be  at  a  loss  to  hear  or  tell  some  new  thing.  This  con- 
dition of  army  society  is  owing  partly  to  its  make-up 
and  partly  to  the  large  amount  of  unoccupied  and  idle 
time  which  hangs  heavily  on  its  hands,  and  at  which, 
as  Dr.  Watts  says, 

"Satan  finds  some  mischief,  still, 
For  idle  hands  to  do.  " 

The  Texas  frontier  during  the  summer  of  1869  was 
left  almost  entirely  unprotected,  the  troops  being  pretty 
much  all  engaged  in  the  work  of  reconstruction  in  the 
interior,  the  tiers  of  counties  adjacent  to  the  Ked  river 
being  exposed  to  the  incursions  of  bands  of  depredating 
Indians.  Only  two  small  comj)anie8  remained  at  Fort 
Richardson,  and  their  duties  seemed  to  be  exclusively 
building  barracks,  officers'  quarters,  and  similar  work,, 
no  time  being  left  for  the  defense  of  the  settlers, 
although  it  seemed  to  us  that  that  was  "  what  we  were 
here  for." 

About  the  end  of  June  four  companies  of  negro 
troops  (Thirty-eighth  Infantry)  arrived  from  Kansas  and 
took  post  near  Jacksboro,  thereby  materially  lessening 
the  duties  of  the  cavalry,  which  were  very  arduous,  the 
men  being  on  guard  every  other  day.  I  had  never 
seen  anything  much  of  colored  troops  during  the  war, 
most  of  them  being  in  the  Western  army,  but  it  seemed 
to  me  they  were  well  adai)ted  to  the  life  and  duties  of 
the  soldier.  Accustomed  to  hard  knocks  all  their  lives^ 
a  little  brutality  on  the  i)art  of  an  offic^er,  more  or  less, 
did  not  seem  to  affect  them  either  i>hysically  or  morally, 
and  their  volatile,  devil-may-care  characters  litted  them 
for  the  ups  and  downs  of  the  army.  The  amount  of 
musical  talent  among  this  command  was  wonderful. 
Every  fellow  seemed  to  be  an  expert  on  the  banjo  or 


FIVE    YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  213 

violin,  and  from  inorniu^'  to  iii^ii^lit  they  kept  up  the 
racket  iii  their  (piarteris.  Many  of  them  were  exeeed- 
in«>iy  clean  and  neat  as  8oldicr8,  and  were  often  selected 
as  "  orderlies"  for  the  officer  of  the  day.  They  all  car- 
ried a  razor  about  their  person  as  their  favorite  weapon 
of  defense  and  offense,  and  were  fain  to  use  it  on  all 
occasions,  and  it  took  but  little  bad  whiskey  to  make 
demons  of  them. 

The  officers  of  the  few  colored  trooi)8  that  came 
within  my  notice  were,  a-s  a  rule,  a  very  superior  set  of 
men.  The  company  offi<*.ers  of  white  regiments  have 
very  little  of  the  deta.il  of  their  companies  to  bother 
them — competent  Sergeants  and  clerks  are  always  to 
be  had,  who  relieve  them  of  suc^h  duties.  Not  so  with 
the  colored  troops  ;  every  detail  of  duty,  looking  after 
their  sanitary  interests,  performing  the  clerical  work, 
the  books,  papers,  and  the  thousand  and  one  things 
that  go  to  make  up  the  routine  of  life  in  the  service, 
all  must  be  attended  to  by  the  officers  themselves,  as 
it  is  rare  to  find  one  of  their  soldiers  competent  to  per- 
form such  duties.  The  intimate  and  practical  knowledge 
of  the  reiiuirements  of  the  men  thus  obtained,  in  addi- 
tion to  the  greater  responsibility  thus  placed  on  their 
shoulders,  accounts  for  the  marked  efficiency  I  have 
noticed  among  them  as  a  class. 

It  seemed  strange  to  me  then,  and  I  look  back  now 
and  fail  to  understand,  the  utter  indifference  of  the 
government  to  the  condition  of  the  Texas  frontier  at 
this  time  (1869-70).  The  following  editorial  from  our 
"Flea"  was  widely  copied  and  expressed  my  views  as 
written  at  the  time : 

*  #  *  .<  The  fact  that  this  is  a  frontier  does  not 
seem  to  be  known  to  the  authorities  at  Washington  or 
elsewhere.  In  1867,  when  the  blazing  dwellings  of  the 
l>ioneers  of  Texas  lighted  up  the  sky  from  the  lied 


214  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

river  to  the  Rio  Grande ;  when  desolated  homes,  mur- 
dered women  and  captured  children  were  every-day 
occurrences  along  our  whole  frontier,  General  Sheridan 
in  a  rei)ort  stated  that  'no  Indian  difficulties  of  any 
importance  had  occurred  in  his  department ;  that  the 
Red  river  was  a  sort  of  dead-line  over  which  neither 
Indian  nor  Texan  dared  to  cross,  owing  to  the  hostility  of 
one  to  the  other ; '  and,  in  fact,  intimating  that  the  Texas 
frontiersman  was  generally  the  aggressor*— this,  too, 
at  a  time  when  the  garrison  at  Buffalo  S})rings  was  be- 
sieged for  days  by  five  hundred  Indians,  and  when 
appeal  after  appeal  had  been  seiit  to  General  Sheridan 
for  arms  and  ammunition.  On  the  plains,  if  a  colored 
soldier  is  killed  carrying  the  mail,  telegrams  are  sent  to 
the  associated  press,  the  great  dailies  of  the  country 
expatiate  on  the  event,  and  the  \yorld  is  horrified  over 
Ms  death.  But  here^  where  the  Fourth  and  Sixth  Cav- 
alry have  been  for  four  years,  doing  more  scouting, 
more  escort,  more  fighting,  more  arduous  service  than 
any  other  troo])S  in  the  army,  no  credit  is  given,  no  one 
knows  of  their  great  services,  and  both  officers  and 
juen  '  waste  their  sweetness  on  the  desert  air.'  " 

This  state  of  th'ngs  continued  until  after  we  had  left 
the  State,  until  after  this  region  had  been  honored  by 
a  visit  from  the  General  of  tl;e  army,  Sherman, 
and  during  which  a  series  of  events  occurred  that 
changed  the  whole  condition  of  the  frontier,  and  soon 
resulted  in  permanently  securing  its  freedom  forever 
from  the  inroads  of  the  sayages. 

,  *It  is  well  kiiowii  that  the  Geileral  didn't  "hanker"  much  after  Texas, 
hut  there  is  some  doubt  as  to  theiauthenticitv"' of  his  remarks  relative  to 
'  'renting  it  out"  and  going  to  a  warmer  place  to  reside.  Down  near  Houston, 
however,  a  native,  anxious  to  impress  on  She'ri'dan  the  desirable  features  of 
Texas,  told  him  '  'if  there  was  onlj'  plenty  of  water  and  good  society,  it  woiild 
be  ecjual  to  any  part  of  the  Union."  The  General  drj^ly  remarked:  "Those 
Aveire  the  only  two  things  thej-  lacked  in  h— I,— water  and  good  society." 


FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  215- 


CHAPTER  XXXIII. 


*'G00D"  INDIANS — CAPTAIN  M'LELLAN'S  FIGHT — JIM 
DOSHIER  —  THE  GUIDE  —  THE  CADET  —  WHAT  HE 
KNOWS  AND  WHAT  HE  DON'T  KNOW — THE  GERMAN 
AND  THE  FRENCHMAN. 

It  had  always  been  contended  by  the  citizens  of 
Texas  that  the  vast  majority  of  the  depredations  com- 
mitted on  the  fi'ontier  were  at  the  hands  of  the  ''good" 
Indians — those  who  lived  on  the  reservations  and  were 
armed,  fed,  clothed  and  protected  by  the  government — 
and  not  the  wild  Kiowas  and  Comauches  who,  though 
roaming  over  this  entire  frontier,  it  was  thought  but 
rarely  extended  their  visits  east  of  the  Brazos  river. 

In  the  latter  part  of  the  spring  of  1870  an  official  of 
the  Interior  Department  arrived  at  Fort  Richardson, 
on  a  tour  of  inspection,  or  rather  for  the  i)urpo;3e  of 
prosecuting  some  geological  researches  in  the  supposed 
copper  region  a  hundred  miles  or  more  to  the  north- 
west. He  was  furnished  with  an  escort  by  the  post 
commander,  and,  accompanied  by  two  officers  and  some 
civilians  from  Jacksboro  and  Weatherford,  njet  with 
no  mishap  for  a  few  days,  until  his  destination  was 
nearly  reached,  when  the  party  was  attacked  by  Ind^'ans 
and  one  soldier  and  two  citizens  were  killed  at  the  first 
onset.  It  appeared  from  the  confused  account  given 
of  the  affair  that  the  whole  party  was  taken  unawares 


216  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

and  became  demoralized,  as  none  of  them  ever  claimed 
that  the  Indians  outnumbered  them.  The  professor 
made  an  "about  face"  and  returned  to  Jacksboro, 
leaving- the  co|)i)er  region  unexi)lored  for  the  time  being. 

On  July  7,  1870,  Ca])tain  McLellan  left  the  post  on  a 
scouting-  expedition,  in  command  of  a  i)arty  of  about 
fifty  men,  and  proceeded  in  the  direction  of  the  Little 
Wichita  and  its  tributaries,  depredations  having  been 
reported  by  the  occasional  settler  or  cow-man,  who  at 
widely  separated  localities  had  taken  up  hie  abode  in 
the  wilderness.  Nothing  occurred  until  the  morning 
of  the  11th,  when  soon  after  beginning  the  day's  march 
the  advance  guard  discovered  a  large  body  of  Indians 
in  a  valley  but  a  short  waj-  off*,  which,  it  was  thought, 
numbered  at  least  two  hundred  and  fifty  or  three  hun- 
dred. It  became  apparent  at  once  to  Captain  McLellan 
that  they  were  about  to  assume  the  offensive,  and  dis- 
mounting his  men  he  prepared  to  receive  their  attack. 

[I  should  observe  here  that  the  Indians  greatly  pre- 
ferred to  fight  cavalry,  or  mounted  citizens,  to  fighting 
infantry,  for  the  obvious  reason  that,  owing  to  their 
8U})erior  and,  in  fact,  unequaled  horsemanship,  they 
had  their  enemies  at  a  very  great  disadvantage,  but 
with  the  enemy  on  terra  firma  they  were  at  a  loss,  for 
their  tactics  here  would  not  avail  them  against  a  few 
determined  dismounted  men  grouped  together  and  pre- 
senting a  firni  front.  It  took  our  people  a  long  time  to 
find  out  that  a  dozen  infantrymen  with  "long  toms," 
riding  in  a  six-mule  government  wagon,  were  more 
dreaded  by  the  Indian  than  a  whole  scpiadron  of  cavalry 
or  rangers ;  but  in  the  last  days  of  Indian  fighting  or 
scouting  this  became  the  usual  mode  of  arming  and 
equipping  parties  of  soldiers.] 

On  came  the  Indians,  the  prairie  literally  covered 
with  them,  they  having  apparently  divided  into  three 


FIVE   YEARS    A    CAVALRYMAN.  217 

parties  of  perliaps  one  hundred  each,  one  party  ti  oh  ting 
at  a  time,  the  others  hovering  on  the  flanks  of  our  men, 
and  relieving  each  other  in  the  main  attack.  Captain 
McLellan  retreated  slowly,  the  men  fighting  between 
the  horses,  which  were  led  bj^  the  fourtli  "  file  "  of  each 
rank,  leaving  three-fourths  of  the  men  disengaged. 
The  heat  was  intense  under  the  July  sun,  and  no  water, 
and  for  about  eight  hours  of  the  Fong  summer  day  that 
devoted  i)arty  slowly  retreated  and  fought  the  over- 
whelming odds,  until  the  approach  of  night  and  the 
proximity  of  a  considerable  stream  deterred  the  Indians 
from  continuing  the  pursuit.  Two  soldiers  were  killed 
and  left  where  they  fell,  and  fourteen  others,  including 
Dr.  Hatch,  the  surgeon,  were  wounded,  some  of  them 
very  severely ;  and  eighteen  of  the  cavalry  horses  were 
killed  and  abandoned  in  the  tight,  besides  some  of  the 
pack  animals.  The  loss  inflicted  on  the  Indians  was, 
of  course,  never  ascertained,  but  was  known  at  the 
time  to  have  been  considerable,  and  was  so  admitted  by 
them  afterward  at  Fort  Sill,  when  Captain  McLellan 
passed  through  that  post  on  our  march  to  Kansas. 
During  the  night  the  Captain  sent  a  courier  into  the 
fort  for  medical  aid  and  ambulances,  and  at  dawn  next 
day  resumed  his  march  home — the  Indians  having  ap- 
parently had  their  "  satisfy,"  from  their  not  renewing  the 
fight  the  next  morning  at  daybreak,  their  favorite  hour 
for  an  attack. 

As  observed,  the  Indians  kept  one  body  always  dis- 
engaged, as  a  reserve, — as  this  one  would  move  to  the 
attack,  another  would  fall  back  out  of  range,  and,  when 
rested,  relieve  another  party,  and  so  on.  They  had  our 
men  entirely  surrounded  and  kept  up  a  constant  fire 
all  day  in  front,  rear  and  both  flanks,  and  it  is  surpris- 
ing that  our  loss  was  as  small  as  it  was.  All  spoke  in 
the  highest  terms  of  the  skill  shown  by  Captain  McLellan 


218  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

and  of  his  coolness  and  courage  in  the  manner  of  con- 
ducting this,  the  most  important  fight  ever  had  on  this 
frontier,  for  an  inexperienced  officer  would  have  had 
his  whole  command  destroyed. 

A  noticeable  feature  of  this  fight  was  that  the  Indians 
seemed  to  have  discarded  the  bow  and  arrow  almost 
entirely,  only  one  of  our  men  being  struck  by  an  arrow ; 
all  the  other  casualties  were  caused  by  breech-loading 
rifles  of  large  calibre.  This  went  to  prove  that  these 
were  Indians  who  either  belonged  on  or  had  access  to 
the  reservations  and  trading  posts,  a  fact  ascertained 
beyond  a  doubt  a  few  months  later,  when  Texas  civil 
law  caught  some  of  the  chiefs,  and  there  came  the 
'^  beginning  of  the  end." 

The  soldiers  who  distinguished  themselves  most,  or 
at  least  those  whose  conduct  came  specially  under  the 
Captain's  eye,  for  «i/  behaved  well,  soon  after  received 
from  the  Secretary  of  War  medals  struck  in  their 
honor,  and  bearing  their  names  on  the  reverse  side. 

Mr.  James  Doshier,  for  many  years  one  of  the  guides 
at  Fort  Eichardson,  was  in  the  fight,  and  was  also 
awarded  a  medal,  and  his  coolness  and  bravery  and 
woodcraft  were  the  admiration  of  the  troops.  Another 
generation  or  two  and  this  class  of  men  will  only  live  in 
song  or  story.  Eesident  for  long  years  on  this  frontier, 
he  knew  every  landmark  of  its  pathless  woods,  or  still 
more  difficult  prairie.  Cool,  self-reliant,  modest,  sober, 
tireless,  he  was  a  thorough  and  competent  guide  and  a 
brave  and  intelligent  man.  Many  of  the  fellows  that  I 
have  known,  in  fact  the  majority  of  them,  who  hang 
around  frontier  posts  and  call  themselves  "  guides," 
are  frauds  who  have  no  more  knowledge  of  the  country 
or  the  habits  of  the  Indian  than  could  be  picked  up  by 
any  one  who  hunts  cattle  for  a  year  or  two.  "  Jim  " 
iJo shier  was  not  one  of  this  kind — he  was  a  guide  iu 


FIVE   YEAKS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  219 

fact.  Young  officers  who  are  sent  out  for  the  tirst  time 
in  their  lives,  in  command  of  scouting  parties,  are  re- 
garded with  gxeat  contempt  by  these  old  "  backwoods- 
men," and  usually  deserve  it  most  thoroughly. 

These  youths  come  out  to  join  their  regiments  fresh, 
fi'om  the  perusal  of  the  "  Leather  Stocking  Tales,"  or 
the  more  recent  "  dime  "  literature  of  the  period,  and, 
full  of  the  idea  of  reducing  the  lore  thus  acquired  to 
practice,  imagine  they  know  more  about  ''  Indian  signs," 
woodcraft,  and  so  on,  than  do  the  men  who  have  spent 
their  lives  reading  the  "  unwritten  languages  of  the 
forest "  or  ''  on  the  trail,"  and  either  "  run  on  "  to  In- 
dians when  it  is  not  desirable  to  do  so,  or,  more 
frequently  still,  cause  such  a  course  to  be  pursued  as 
renders  the  finding  of  them  doubtful. 

In  fact,  ah  extremely  young  officer,  a  fledgling  from 
"the  Point," is  for  the  first  few  years  of  his  service  a 
sort  of  unfinished  boy  who  is  not  fit  for  anything  ])ar- 
ticularly,  except  to  act  as  recorder  on  a  "board  of 
survey,"  go  on  as  "officer  of  the  guard,"  act  as  "file 
closer  "  at  drill,  or  to  perform  such  other  duties  as  may 
relieve  the  older  officers  from  some  of  the  drudgery 
of  routine. 

It  was  for  years  an  interesting  and  unanswered  ques- 
tion in  my  mind  as  to  what  the  cadets  at  this  period 
were  taught  at  West  Point.  I  had  heard  of  the  "  pre- 
mium fellows  " — those  who  graduated  at  the  head  of 
their  class,  and  for  whom  very  brilliant  careers  were 
predicted — but  I  never  saic  any  of  them.  I  think  all 
that  we  got  were  fiom  the  other  end — left  over,  as  it 
were.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  I  never  saw  one  that  could 
drill  a  squad,  ride  a  horse,  knew  how  to  wear  a  sabre 
without  getting  it  tangled  up  with  his  legs,  mount  a 
guard,  make  out  a  ration  return,  or  inspect  a  carbine. 
They    generally   had    a   pleasing   disregard   for    both 


220  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

orthography  and  cln*rogia])h3',  and  I  am  sure  there  was 
not  one  in  ten  who  came  under  my  observation  who 
knew  or  could  compute  the  ration  allowances  for  one 
hundred  men  for  ten  days.  I  have  heard  that  they  were 
generally  fanriliar  with  the  science  of  mixed  drinks, 
and  were  "up  "in  the  mysteries  of  "opening  a  jack- 
pot," but  of  these  accomplishments  T  cannot  speak  of 
my  own  knowledge,  as  they  did  not  come  under  my 
observation. 

But,  in  justice  to  these  young  fellows,  it  must  be  ad- 
mitted that  the  older  officers  they  were  thrown  in  con- 
tact wHh  made  the  comparison  an  unfaverabJe  one.  In 
my  time,  nine  of  the  Captains  of  my  regiment  were  old 
soldiers — raised  from  the  ranks,  as  were  several  of  the 
the  First  Lieutenants.  These  men  had  cam])aigned  all 
over  the  plains  with  Harney,  and  Kirby  Smith,  and 
Albert  Sidney  Johnston,  and  McDowell,  and  Lee,  and 
were  every  inch  soldiers,  educated  in  the  o?*/// thorough 
school — experience — and  were  the  kind  of  men  of  whom 
Napoleon  said  every  one  had  a  Marshal's  baton  in  his 
knapsack. 

In  the  fall  of  the  year  1870,  a  scouting  party  under 
command  of  Captain  liafferty,  of  the  regiment,  fell  in 
with  and  defeated  a  small  band  of  Indians,  one  of  whom 
was  killed.  This  fellow  was  a  chief  of  the  Kiowas,  and 
had  u})on  his  person  one  of  the  large  silver  medals  our 
"  i)aternal  "  government  from  time  to  time  issues  out  to 
good  Indians  as  a  kind  of  "reward  of  merit,"  the  one 
in  question  bearing  date  1839,  and  having  been  struck 
during  the  administration  of  Martin  Van  liuien,  whose 
likeness  and  name  were  on  one  side  of  it. 

During  the  summer  and  fall  of  this  year,  the  Franco- 
Prussian  war  being  in  i)rogre8S,  many  "  scrimmages" 
occurred  between  the  German  and  French  soldiers  in 
the  command,  and  although    the  latter  were  few   in 


FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALKYMAN.  221 

numbers  they  made  it  up  in  an  excess  of  i)atriotism. 
But  the  Germans  had  tlie  best  of  it;  tlie  majority  of 
the  band  was  from  the  "  Fatherland,"  and  the  "  Wacht 
am  Rhine"  and  other  of  their  national  airs  were  i)layed 
mornino',  noon  and  iii^ht,  to  the  disgust  of  the  "  enemy." 
The  Frenchmen  would  get  together  and  sing  the 
"  Marseillaise,"  and  occasionally  blows  were  struck,  but 
not  much  damage  was  done,  and  finally  the  officers  pro- 
hibited the  i)laying  of  the  aggravating  tunes  for  the 
time  being. 


222  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 


CHAPTER  XXXIV. 


ED.  WOLFFARTH — THE  PIONEER — UNGRATEFUL  RE- 
PUBLICS— CALIFORNIA  JACK  FOR  THE  LAST  TIME — 
LIVING  ON  SNOW  FOR  SEVENTY-TWO  HOURS — TRUE 
HEROISM — THE  DEAD  MARCH. 

The  principal  guide  employed  at  Fort  Richardson 
for  years  was  Edward  Wolffartli,  an  old  frontiersman, 
whose  experiences  dated  away  back.  He  had  belonged 
for  ten  years  to  the  Fifth  United  States  Infantry  and 
served  in  it  through  the  Mexican  war,  being  discharged 
on  the  Rio  Grande  about  1856.  He  had  afterward 
settled  on  the  frontier,  been  sheriff  of  Young  county 
before  the  war,  and  resided  at  old  Fort  Belknap  and 
at  Jacksboro,  and  being  a  keen  hunter  as  well  as  an 
old  soldier,  had  become  familiar  with  the  country, 
and  was  appointed  guide  soon  after  the  occupancy 
of  this  section  by  troops  in  1866.  He  has  tilled 
many  offices  of  public  trust  to  the  satisfaction  of  hm 
fellow-citizens,  and  is  still  ""  to  the  fore,"  and  relishes 
good  hunting  and  fishing  as  much  as  ever,  and  m 
authority  ii])on  all  subjects  that  affect  the  old  settlers, 
or  refer  to  the  good  old  times,  his  recollections 
stretching  back  nearly  forty  years.  Such  men  as  he 
have  seen  wonderful  changes  on  these  frontiers  within 
their  memory,  and  it  has  been  a  never-failing  source  of 
])leasure  to  me  to  hear  them  tell  the  adventures  and 


FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  223 

the  thrilliiio-  experiences  of  their  lives.  And  I  often 
think  the  "newcomer"  or  the  "rising- generation  "  has 
too  little  respect  for  these  pioneers,  these  videttes  who 
blazed  out  the  forest  and  "  made  the  i)aths  straight " 
and  ])0ssible  for  us  who  have  come  after  them,  and 
find  things  ready  to  our  hands. 

'  'They  had  rigid  manners  and  homespun  breeches, 

In  the  good  old  times; 
They  hunted  Indians,  and  cared  naught  for  riches, 

In  the  good  old  times : 
They  toiled  and  moiled  from  sun  to  sun, 
And  counted  sinful  all  kinds  of  fun, 
And  they  went  to  meeting  armed  with  a  gun, 

In  the  good  old  times. ' ' 

They  not  only  "went  to  meeting"  armed  with  a  gun, 
but  they  carried  it  to  the  wedding  and  to  the  funeral, 
and  to  the  lodge-room;  they  had  it  strap])ed  to  the 
plow  as  they  turned  over  the  virgin  sod,  and  kept  one 
eye  on  the  furrow  and  the  other  toward  the  timber,  on 
the  lookout  for  the  prowling  savage  who  was  at  any 
moment  likely  to  "  run  onto  "  them,  or  fire  their  cabin 
in  their  absence. 

And  1  often  think,  when  I  recall  the  many  families  in 
Jack  county  and  elsewhere  on  this  frontier  who  had 
the  husband  or  father  or  brother  murdered  by  the 
Indians,  that  the  State  government,  instead  of  building 
costly  monuments  to  perpetuate  the  memories  of  indi- 
viduals, had  better  provide  for  the  widows  and  orphans 
of  these  heroic  frontiersmen  who  fell,  if  not  in  the 
front  of  battle,  at  least  in  the  front  of  civilization  and 
progress,  and  whose  lives  and  labors  were  of  more  real 
value  to  mankind  than  the  heroes  of  a  hundred  battle- 
fields. 

As  remarked  above,  the  majority  of  the  fellows  who 
hung  around  the  military  posts  and  i)assed  themselves 
off  for  "  guides  "  were  of  no  earthly  use,  and  knew  little 
or  nothing   of  the   country.      The  tradifional   guides, 


224  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

however,  I  had  never  seen  until  I  struck  Kansas,  and 
there  they  were  to  be  met  with  loafing  around  every 
post.  Long-haired,  clothed  in  buckskin  gaily  decorated 
with  beads,  moccasins  on  their  feet,  villainous-looking 
broad-brimmed  hats,  loaded  down  with  firearms  and 
proficient  in  their  use,  they  were  rated  by  the  number  of 
men  they  had  "  got  the  drop  on,"  and  were,  upon  the 
whole,  as  thorough  a  set  of  blackguards  as  could  be 
found.  Their  chief  ambition  was  to  be  regarded  as  "  holy 
terrors"  while  they  lived  and  to  "die  with  their  boots 
on  "  at  the  end — a  consummation  generally  realized. 

The  latter  part  of  December,  1870,  was  characterized 
by  a  degree  of  cold  very  unusual  in  this  latitude,  the 
mercury  falling  for  several  successive  nights  many 
degrees  below  zero,  and  reaching  as  low  one  night  as 
thirteen  degrees,  an  unprecedented  temperature,  I  was 
told  by  the  old  citizens,  never  before  experienced  here. 
A  camp  consisting  of  three  comj)anies  of  cavalry  and 
one  of  infantry  had  been  established  soon  after  Captain 
McLellan's  fight,  on  one  of  the  forks  of  the  Little 
Wichita  river,  about  twelve  miles  northwest  from 
Buffalo  Springs,  known  as  "  Camp  Wichita,"  the  com- 
mand to  which  our  old  acquaintance,  "  California  Jack," 
belonged,  forming  part  of  the  garrison.  Jack  had  been 
detailed  as  a  member  of  a  general  courtmartial  to  be 
assembled  at  Fort  Richardson,  and  on  the  morning  of 
December  21st  prepared  to  start  for  that  post,  accom- 
panied by  another  officer  and  a  suitable  escort.  In  his 
usual  heels-over-head  style,  he  concluded  not  to  wait 
for  the  others,  they  being  dilatory  about  starting,  and 
struck  out  for  Jacksboro  alone,  riding  a  valuable  horse 
called  "  Brownie,"  to  which  he  was  greatly  attached. 
The  others  of  the  party  left  an  hour  or  so  afterward, 
taking  the  usual  route,  and  arriving  at  Richardson  in 


FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  225 

due  time,  iiuding  on  getting  in  that  "California"  had 
not  yet  arrived.  This  was  a  matter  of  surprise, 
for  he  had  started  sooner  than  they  did,  was  riding- 
a  fine  horse,  and  was  usually  a  hard  rider.  The  fol- 
lowing morning,  not  having  put  in  an  appearance, 
it  was  feared  something  had  happened  him,  and  an 
ambulance  and  detail  were  sent  to  look  him  up,  the 
preceding  night  having  been  bitter  cold,  and  a  heavy 
"norther"  accompanying  it.  Just  as  the  party  was 
leaving  the  post  on  their  search,  a  soldier  who  had 
been  on  a  turkey  hunt  arrived,  bringing  word  that  the 
hunting  party  had  found  the  Lieutenant;  that  he  was 
badly  frozen,  and  urging  the  utmost  speed  in  getting  to 
his  relief.  JN^o  time  was  lost  in  starting,  but  the  ambu- 
lance broke  down  en  route  to  the  scene,  and  it  was 
after  midnight  when  they  returned,  bringing  the  unfor- 
tunate fellow  with  them. 

Jack  was  never  able  to  give  a  very  clear  account  of 
his  adventure,  but  it  seemed  that  he  left  the  open 
prairie  and  kept  along  the  shelter  of  the  timber,  and 
becoming  wet  through  and  completely  chilled  in  swim- 
ming a  creek  north  of  the  West  Fork  of  the  Trinity, 
had  dismounted  when  approaching  the  latter  stream 
for  the  purpose  of  endeavoring  to  kindle  a  tire,  but 
found  his  matches  damp  and  his  pistols  also  wet — a:; 
he  was  an  immense  man,  and  riding  a  comparatively 
small  horse,  he  had  gotten  down  low  in  the  water — anl 
on  trying  to  remount  his  horse,  found  himself  so 
stiffened  by  the  intense  cold  as  to  be  unable  to  do  so, 
or,  in  fact,  move  at  all ;  so  he  turned  "  Brownie  "  loose, 
and  crawling  to  the  shelter  of  some  bushes  awaited 
events.  After  dark  he  saw  camp  tires  on  the  south 
bank  of  the  river,  but  suspecting  they  were  Indians 
did  not  attempt  to  attract  their  attention,  which,  at  any 
rate,  he  would  not  have  been  able  to  do.     These  camp 

8* 


226  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

fires  were  those  of  the  turkey  hunters  alluded  to,  and 
had  they  imagined  their  proximity  to  poor  Jack  it 
would  have  been  less  serious  for  him  than  it  proved  to 
be,  although  he  was  already  badly  frozen.  So  the  night 
l)assed  away,  and  the  following  morning  the  hunters, 
on  crossing  the  stream,  found  him,  his  faithful  horse 
standing  close  beside  him,  he  not  having  attempted  to 
leave  him,  nor  had  Jack  been  able  to  drive  him  off, 
which  he  had  tried  to  do,  hoping  he  would  go  back  to 
the  camp  and  thus  let  the  people  know  something  had 
hai)pened.  The  hunters  removed  Jack  to  their  camp, 
did  ever^-thing  they  could  for  him,  and  sent  into  the 
l)Ost  for  assistance,  as  stated.  Although  the  party 
bringing  him  in  reached  the  post  about  midnight,  they 
were  themselves  so  much  overcome  with  the  cold  or 
something  else  that  they  never  reported  to  the  hospital, 
but  allowed  him  to  remain  all  night  in  his  frozen  clothes, 
not  notifying  Dr.  Patzki  of  his  arrival  until  the  fol]o\ving 
morning,  when  of  course  everything  possible  was  done 
for  him.  I  have  seen  nearly  everything  ghastly  and 
horrible,  during  war  times  and  since,  but  never  any- 
thing more  so  than  that  poor  fellow's  appearance.  He 
was  just  able  to  move  his  eyes  and  lips,  but  could  not 
articulate  a  word ;  his  clothes,  boots,  hair,  beard,  a 
mass  of  ice  and  frozen  mud,  and  his  feet  and  lower 
limbs  swollen  out  of  all  shape.  The  assistant  surgeons 
present  for  duty,  three  or  four  in  number,  advised  im- 
mediate amputation  of  both  limbs  above  the  knees,  but 
Dr.  Patzki,  surgeon-in-chief,  overruled  them,  and  set  to 
work  to  carry  out  his  theory  of  keeping  up  the  patient's 
system,  therel)y  saving  as  much  of  the  limbs  as  possible, 
and  postponing  amputation  to  such  date  as  it  could  no 
longer  be  delayed  with  safety  to  his  life. 

Now  mark  an  instance  of  the  "  ruling  passion  strong 
in  death."     The  reader  has  already  been  familiarized 


FIVE    YEAUS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  227 

with  Jack's  teiuleiicy  to  "  enlarge  "  on  occasion,  and  on 
the  niornini*-  aftv^r  he  was  brought  to  the  hospital  I 
went  to  see  if  I  could  be  of  any  use,  for  I  liked  him 
and  he  had  been  kind  to  me.  When  the  steward  and 
nurses  were  cutting  off  his  boots  and  frozen  clothes  he 
beckoned  to  me  and  indicated  a  desire  for  some  hot 
liquor.  The,  doctor  ordered  it  prepared  for  him,  and 
after  we  succeeded  in  getting  a  little  of  it  down  his 
throat  it  revived  him  somewhat,  and  he  whispered  to 

me,  feebly:  '^ By ^  McGonnell,  that  tastes  good  to  a 

man  who  has  been  living  on  snow  for  seventy-two  hours  ! '' 
Poor  fellow !  it  was  bad  enough,  but  he  hadn't  been 
out  quite  that  long. 

The  interval  that  succeeded  until  he  was  in  a  fit  con- 
dition to  bear  amputation,  and  until  it  could  not  longer 
be  postponed,  was  a  terrible  one  for  both  himself  and 
for  the  attendants  as  well.  In  almost  constant  delirium, 
and  burning  with  fever,  it  was  hard  work  to  manage  a 
man  of  such  giant  frame,  and  at  times  he  had  to  be 
strapped  down  to  his  iron  cot  in  order  to  keep  him 
from  injuring  himself  or  his  nurses.  In  moments  of 
consciousness  he  exhibited  aU  the  traits  of  a  soldier, 
spoke  of  his  condition,  of  his  parents,  and  of  his  ex- 
pectation of  death,  which  for  days  was  imminent. 
There  were  none  of  the  sentimental  reflections  indulged 
in  by  Jack,  such  as  are  usually  attributed  to  men  in  his 
condition,  but  calmly,  quietly,  he  would  say  :  "  Doc ! 
don't  be  afraid  to  tell  me  if  I've  got  to  die !  I  can  lay 
down  my  hand  and  pass  in  my  chips  at  one  stage  of  the 
game  as  well  as  another,  if  I  have  to  !  " 

On  January  13th  following  the  occurrence,  the  post 
surgeon,  assisted  by  two  of  the  others  present,  ampu- 
tated one  of  his  feet  at  the  ankle  joint  and  the  other 
one  at  the  instep,  saving  his  heel.  The  patient  refusing 
anesthetics,  and  half  reclining  in  a  sitting  posture  on 


228  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

tlie  operating  table,  smoked  his  i)ipe  and  made  sug- 
gestions during  the  hour  and  ten  minutes  consumed  in 
the  operation.  Thanks  to  a  powerful  frame  and  the 
best  of  medical  attention,  he  recovered,  although  it 
was  ten  months  before  he  got  out  of  the  hos})ital;  and 
while  the  days  of  his  active  life  are  gone  by  forever,  he 
is  still  living  to  enjoy  his  "  full  retired  pay,"  and  the 
author  hopes  he  may  long  continue  to  draw  it,  and  to 
"tight  his  battles  over  "hi  imagination,  and  to  relate 
with  "additions"  the  stories  of  frontier  life  he  was  so 
fond  of  telling. 

About  this  period  our  regimental  band  was  being 
reorganized,  and  being  in  a  transition  condition,  await- 
ing the  arrival  of  a  new  set  of  instruments  and  a  new 
leader,  a  fellow  named  Henry  was  in  charge.  Hearing 
of  the  Lieutenant's  low  condition,  and  anticipating  his 
death  at  any  moment,  he  kept  the  band  busy  i)racticing 
the  "  Dead  March  in  Saul,"  so  as  to  be  in  readiness  to  do 
honor  to  the  occasion.  The  band  quarters  were  not 
far  from  the  hospital,  and  in  one  of  his  lucid  Intervals 
he  noticed  the  music,  called  the  nurse  and  asked  him 
to  send  for  the  leader.  On  his  arrival.  Jack  did  just^'ce 
to  the  subject  in  all  the  language  he  could  command, 
and  dismissed  the  discomfitted  musician  with  the 
promise  that  he  would  surely  live  to  get  out  of  that 
bed  and  "  put  a  head  on  him  he  could  eat  hay  with," 
for  practicing  funeral  music  for  his  benefit. 


FIVE    YEARS    A    CAVALRYMAN.  229 


CHAPTER  XXXY. 


NEW  OFFICERS — THE  COMPANY  TAILOR — FAREWELL 
TO  TEXAS — ACROSS  RED  RIVER — THE  LONE  GRAVE — 
FORT  SILL — FINE  SCENERY  —  EN  ROUTE  TO 
KANSAS  —  THE  '' CHISHOLM  TRAIL"  —  THE  DAR- 
W^INIAN  THEORY. 

The  "Army  Bill"  of  1870  caused  considerable  per- 
turbation in  our  regiment  as  well  as  in  others,  among 
the  officers,  several  of  whom  availed  themselves  of  its 
provisions,  to  resign,  and  we  accordingly  lost  several 
very  promising  officers.  Our  Colonel,  taking  advantage 
of  the  power  conferred  on  him,  of  recommending  for 
a  transfer,  muster  out,  or  the  retiring  board,  such  cases 
as  he  deemed  proper,  seized  the  opportunity  to  get  rid 
of  all  those  who  for  'duj  reason  were  distasteful  to 
him,  Colonel  Starr  among  the  number. 

The  arrangement  of  transferring  the  surplus  officers 
from  the  infantry  to  the  cavalry  was  a  desirable  one 
for  the  former,  but  a  most  unsatisfactory  and  unjust 
one  to  the  latter.  Captains  of  cavalry,  who  were  at 
the  top  of  the  list  and  near  their  "majority,"  were 
pushed  back  to  make  room  for  old  infantry  Captains, 
who  had  to  be  provided  for,  thus  setting  the  cavalry 
Captains  back  in  rank  for  long  years,  and  promoting 
over  their  heads  infantry  officers  w^ho  lacked  every 
essential  for  the  mounted  service. 


230  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

As  a  rule,  a  cavalry  officer  is  as  well  up  in  everything 
pertaining  to  dismounted  duty  as  an  infantryman  is,  for 
the  reason  that  a  great  part  of  the  time  the  cavalry  are 
"a-foot,"  but  an  infantry  officer  cannot,  from  the  nature 
of  the  circumstances,  be  at  all  familiar  with  the  mani- 
fold duties  peculiar  to  the  mounted  service,  and  when 
he  gets  on  top  of  a  sixteen-hands-high  cavalry  horse,  is 
a  fearful  and  wonderful  sight.  One  such,  transferred 
to  a  cavalry  regiment  about  this  i)eriod,  being  at  stables 
and  hearing  the  incessant  "  click-click "  as  the  men 
knocked  their  currycombs  and  brushes  together  to  free 
them  fi'om  the  accumulating  dirt  and  hairs,  asked  one 
of  the  officers  "  what  the  men  were  doing  that  for,  and 
if  it  was  not  some  kind  of  concerted  mark  of  disrespect 
to  him ! " 

I  am  reminded  here  of  the  traditional  story  so  often 
told  of  tailors,  of  whom  it  is  said  they  always  mount 
on  the  wrong  side  of  a  horse.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the 
company  tailor  of  my  troop  did  attempt  to  saddle  a 
horse  by  getting  the  saddle  on  hind-part  before.  I 
believe  I  have  never  spoken  of  the  "  company  tailor,'^ 
an  institution  in  my  time  absolutely  indispensable,  as 
none  of  the  clothing  issued  was  lit  to  wear  until  it  had 
been  altered  from  top  to  bottom.  The  clothing  fur- 
nished was  of  four  sizes — from  number  one  to  number 
four — and  the  exigencies  contingent  on  the  stock  on 
hand  often  necessitated  the  issuing  of  a  number  four 
garment  to  a  number  one  man,  and  vice  versa.  Then 
came  in  the  services  of  the  tailor  (a  non-combatant, 
usually  of  the  same  kind  as  the  dog-robber  or  the  com- 
pany clerk),  and  he  frequently  made  them  into  very 
respectably  fitting  uniforms.  In  my  time  the  cavalry 
jacket  had  two  great  rolls  of  cloth  at  the  waist  behind, 
presumably  to  support  the  belt ;  these  the  boys  called 
the  "  bounty -jumpers,"  and  always  had  them  cut  off.     I 


FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  231 

have  before  spoken  of  the  proclivity  of  the  soldier  for 
the  use  of  slang- — notably,  he  always  spoke  of  his  de- 
ceased comrade  as  having  "  croaked,"  and  alluded  to 
his  cofRn  as  "his  wooden  overcoat!" 

"Ours"  had  now  been  more  than  five  years  in  Texas, 
and  from  the  nature  of  things,  and  the  "  customs  of  the 
service,"  it  was  not  likely  it  would  be  our  fortune  to 
serve  much  longer  in  the  State.  "Grapevine"  stories 
were  afloat,  and  rumors  originating  in  the  xVdjutant's 
office  gave  color  to  them,  that  we  were  to  be  relieved, 
in  conseciuence  of  which  we  were  not  much  surpri^sed 
one  day  in  February,  1871,  to  learn  that  orders  had 
been  promulgated  transferring  us  to  the  Department 
of  tlie  Missouri,  the  change  to  take  place  as  soon  as 
the  Fourth  Cavalry  relieved  us. 

The  prospective  change  was  hailed  with  delight  by 
most  of  the  officers,  but  was  generally  regretted  by  the 
men,  to  whom  Texas  had  become  endeared  in  a  thou- 
sand dfferent  ways.  Many  of  the  soldiers  had  married, 
others  had  formed  attachments  and  friendships  more  or 
less  permanent";  nearly  all  the  men  who  had  been  dis- 
charged from  time  to  time  had  settled  in  the  country, 
and  many  of  them  were  doing  well.  Furthermore, 
there  is  an  ethnological  fact  (?)  that  no  one  ever  leaves 
Texas  after  they  have  been  here  a  certain  length  of 
time.  They  either  can't  or  don't  want  to,  or  it  may  be 
as  the  old  settlers  used  to  say,  "  having  once  drank 
Ked  river  water,  it  was  not  possible  to  go  back ; "  the 
fact  rema'ns,  few  peoi)le  seem  to  come  here  with  a  view 
of  staying,  but  they  do  stay  and  have  stayed  until  nearly 
three  millions  are  here,  and  there  are  "  more  to  follow." 

The  prospect  of  leaving  this  genial  and  sunny  clime 
(it  sometimes  gets  chilly — see  the  last  chapter)  for  the 
})leak  plains  of  Western  Kansas  Avas  by  no  means  an 
agreeable  one  to  those  who  had  had  much  experience, 


232  FIVE   YEAKS   A   CAVALRYMAN. 

and,  altogetlier,  the  "  move,"  usually  so  acceptable  to  a 
soldier,  was  not  in  this  case  a  popular  one.  One 
class  of  the  boys,  however,  hailed  it  as  a  godsend — I 
refer  to  the  scalawags  who,  having  unlimited  credit 
among  the  shopkeepers  at  Jacksboro,  saw  in  the  move 
a  dispensation  whereby  they  could  get  out  of  paying 
them,  a  thing  not  possible  had  they  remained  within 
"  reaching  "  distance. 

On  March  20th  the  regimental  headquarters  and  six 
companies  marched  out  of  the  post  for  Fort  Harker, 
Kansas,  the  balance  of  the  command  (of  which  my 
company  was  a  part)  being  left  back  with  orders  to  fol- 
low as  soon  as  relieved  by  the  Fourth  Cavalry.  The 
weeks  following  the  departure  of  the  first  detachment 
were  busily  occupied  in  turning  over  our  surplus  stores 
and  unserviceable  arms  and  equipments,  and  in  packing- 
up  for  the  march,  and  toward  the  end  of  April  we  were 
readv  to  "  roll  out ,''  Colonel  Mackenzie  and  the  head- 
quarters  of  his  regiment  having  arrived  and  relieved 
us.  Subsequent  events  proved  that  the  advent  of  this 
officer.  Colonel  and  brevet  Major  General  Eanald  S. 
Mackenzie,  was  to  prove  a  blessing  to  this  whole  State 
and  frontier,  and  to  reflect  credit  on  the  National  gov- 
ernment and  on  his  own  command.  He  was  a  lighting- 
man,  had  achieved  a  national  reputation  during  the 
war,  was  one  of  the  youngest  Generals  in  the  volunteer 
service  and  the  youngest  Colonel  in  the  regular  army. 
He  believed  it  was  more  important  for  the  troops  to 
scout  the  frontier  and  perform  military  duty  than  it 
was  to  build  chicken-coops  for  officers  and  interfere 
with  the  citizens  of  the  country ;  and  within  two  years 
after  he  took  command,  the  occupation  of  the  Indian 
was  gone,  the  lives  of  the  settlers  were  safe,  and  the 
early  abandonment  of  numerous  military  stations  pos- 
sible, they  being  no  longer  needed. 


FIVE   YEARS    A    CAVALRYMAN.  233 

The  niorniiio  of  April  20tli  our  four  coiupaiiies  were 
in  line  (the  two  remaining  troops  of  the  regiment  being 
yet  at  Fort  Griflin.  seventj'-eight  miles  southwest  of 
Jaeksboro),  our  wagons  were  packed,  and  bidding  good- 
bye to  the  host  of  cit'zens  who  came  to  see  us  off",  we 
turned  our  backs  on  Fort  Eichardson  and  started  for 
Kansas,  the  prospective  tramp  of  live  hundred  miles 
not  being  a  cheerful  one  to  that  portion  of  the  com- 
mand (nearly  one-half)  without  horses.  The  transporta- 
tion turnished  us  was  very  limited,  only  four  wagons 
being  allowed  to  each  company  for  use  of  otiicers, 
forage,  rations  and  personal  baggage,  in  consequence 
of  which,  many  of  the  men  were  compelled  to  leave 
nearly  all  of  their  clothes,  except  such  as  they  could 
carry  on  their  horses  with  them. 

The  remainder  of  my  exi)erience  being  pretty  much 
all  occup'ed  " /?i /r«?i,v///'  I  will  put  my  observations 
in  the  form  of  a  daily  record,  copied  from  the  pocket 
memoianda  in  wh^ch  I  noted  down  my  impressions  that 
struck  me  as  worth  noticing,  as  to  the  scenery'  through 
which  we  passed,  incidents  of  the  tr^p,  etc. 
.  Sunday,  April  23,  1871. — Left  our  camp  (which  wai 
forty-two  miles  northeast  from  Jaeksboro)  at  half-past 
six  in  the  morning,  and  reached  the  south  bank  of  the 
Eed  river  at  ten  o'clock.  The  valley  at  this  point 
seemed  about  three  m'les  wide,  the  banks  h^'gh  and 
timbered,  and  the  bottom  of  a  fine  alluvial  soil,  such  as 
is  in  fact  a  characteristic  of  the  whole  of  the  upper 
Eed  river  valley.  The  scene  from  the  south  bank  was 
a  very  beautiful  one,  the  wide  river  sweeping  from  the 
northwest  towards  the  southeast  in  many  a  tortuous 
curve,  the  view  down  its  course  being  lost  in  the  hazy 
distance  to  where  it  sweeps  away  towards  the  north- 
east, making  one  of  the  great  curves  or  bends  that 
render  its  meanderings  so  intricate.     A  description  of 


234  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

any  one  of  these  rivers  of  the  southwest  suffices  for  all — 
wide  stretches  of  sand,  the  stream  at  times  only  a  sil- 
very thread  almost  lost  to  view,  then,  in  a  few  hours 
becoming'  a  huge  torrent  a  mile  in  width,  rivaling  for 
the  time  being  the  Giro  or  the  Mississippi,  in  its 
mighty  flow  of  water.  At  p.uch  a  time  passage  is  im- 
practicable, and  the  benighted  traveler  may  go  into 
camp  with  as  much  resignation  as  he  can,  and  await  the 
subsidence  of  the  flood  which  is  usually  as  rap'd  as  was 
the  rise,  but  leaving  the  ford  in  both  a  difficult  and 
daiigerouB  condition,  the  channel  having  frequently 
shifted  from  one  side  to  the  other,  and  the  muddy  and 
turbulent  condition  of  the  water  rendering  the  finding 
of  a  safe  fording  place  a  matter  of  guees  work. 

One  Captain  "  Nick"  Nolan,  formerly  of  the  Sixth, 
but  later  of  a  colored  cavalry  regiment,  once  arrived 
at  this  crossing  when  the  river  was  ''  bank-full."  The 
Sergeant  reported  it  dangerous  and  asked  what  should 
be  done.  "  Hook  yourselves  together,  and  swing  across 
like  your  forefathers  did  in  Africa!"  said  the  Captain, 
alluding  to  the  remote  antecedents  of  his  troopers, 
according  to  the  Darwinian  theory. 

The  river  had  been  "  up"  recently,  and  finding  it  was 
still  too  deep  to  cross  the  wagons  without  danger  of 
damage  to  the  contents,  recourse  was  had  to  the  ferry- 
boat kept  by  a  settler  at  the  "  station,"  and  to  whom 
the  crossing  of  such  an  outfit  as  ours  was  a  perfect 
"windfall,"  such  as  he  had  never  dreamed  of,  the  com- 
manding officer  having  bargained  to  pay  him  one 
hundred  dollars.  We  commenced  crossing  about  noon, 
and  it  was  nearly  dark  when  the  last  got  over,  the  ferry- 
boat being  a  small  and  rickety  affair,  only  having  a 
cai>acity  for  about  ten  horses  at  one  load.  Xo  accident 
occurred,  except  to  one  soldier,  who  fell  overboard  and 
lost  his  carbine,  and  my  dog,  given  me  by  Dr.  Patzki, 


FIVE   YEARS   A   CAVALRYMAN.  235 

juuiped  off  and  swam  back  to  Texas  soil,  and  I  saw 
him  no  more.  We  made  our  camp  on  a  high  bluff  about 
two  miles  from  the  crossing,  and  as  I  laid  down  by  the 
camp-fire  that  night  I  passed  in  retrosi)ect  the  many 
lights  and  shadows  I  had  seen  chase  each  other  across 
the  horizon  of  army  life  in  Texas,  from  the  day  I 
stei)ped  on  its  soil  at  Galveston  until  now,  when  I 
stei)ped  off  it  at  lied  river,  having  traversed  many 
hundred  miles  and  witnessed  many  strange  scenes,  and 
saw  the  end  of  these  years  of  soldier  life  rapidly  draw- 
ing to  a  close  in  the  near  future. 

Monday,  April  24. — Marched  only  fifteen  miles  to- 
day, crossing  and  camping  on  Beaver  creek,  a  tributary 
of  Eed  river,  a  violent  and  rapid  stream,  with  precipi- 
tous and  ditficult  banks,  heavily  timbered.  IS'oticed  a 
lonely  grave  with  a  rude  inscription  on  a  bluff  near  the 
creek,  that  of  a  settler  who  had  been  killed  by  Indians 
a  few  months  before ;  and  while  I  have  become  pretty 
well  used  to  these  sad  and  silent  records  of  the  pioneer, 
they  never  fail  to  awaken  reflection. 

We  caught  some  huge  catfish  in  Beaver,  and  heard 
turkeys  in  great  numbers  during  the  night,  but  a  heavy 
rain  set  in,  and  the  shelter  of  our  tents  was  pleasanter 
than  sitting  under  the  trees  waiting  to  hear  a  "gobble." 

Wednesday,  April  26. — Since  entering  the  Indian 
Territory  our  route  has  lain  over  a  high  rolling  prairie 
countrj^,  the  courses  of  all  the  streams,  even  the  small- 
est watercourses,  being  well  wooded.  In  this  respect 
the  appearance  of  the  country  is  identical  with  that  of 
Northern  Texas,  but  the  ])rairies  appear  to  be  more 
boundless  and  the  belts  of  timber  less  frequent.  Early 
in  the  day's  march  we  came  in  sight  of  Mount  Scott, 
the  highest  peak  of  the  Wichita  range,  and  about 
twenty-seven  miles  distant,  when  first  sighted,  in  a 
northerlv  direction. 


L>3()  FIVE   YEAES   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

April  27. — Passed  through  Fort  Sill  at  noon,  cross- 
in «-  Cache  creek,  on  which  the  fort  is  situated,  and 
went  into  camp  on  Medicine  Bluff  creek,  about  a  mile 
beyond,  having  accomplished  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
three  miles  of  our  march.  This  stream,  which  flows 
Ihrough  ^  gorge  in  the  Wichita  Mountains  and  empties 
into  Cache  creek  near  the  fort,  possesses  some  varied 
and  striking  scenery,  and  many  of  the  views  are  worthy 
of  rei)roduction  by  the  landscape  painter.  The  canon 
through  which  it  forces  its  way,  some  three  miles  north- 
west from  the  fort,  is  probably  three  hundred  feet  high 
(')r  deep  rather),  the  right  wall  being  nearly  perpen- 
dicular, while  the  left  bank  rises  at  an  angle  and  is 
clo'hed  with  verdure  to  its  summit.  The  gorge  is  per- 
haps half  a  mile  in  length,  and  through  this  narrow 
channel  the  clear  and  beautiful  stream  rushes  like  a 
mUi-race.  In  one  ieature  this  region  far  surpasses 
Texas,  that  is  in  the  quality  of  the  water,  which  in 
nearly  every  streauj,  no  matter  how  diminutive  and 
shallow,  is  good  and  palatable. 

Fort  Sill  was  established  in  18(38  (soon  after,  and  in 
a  manner  consequent  on,  the  Indian  raid  on  Buffalo 
Si)raigs  in  July,  1807),  and  superseded  the  use  of  Forts 
Arbuckle  and  Cobb ;  is  on  the  right  bank  of  Cache 
creek,  which  stream  flows  around  the  north  and  east 
sides  of  the  hill  on  which  the  post  is  built. 

The  Wichita  Mountains  are  seen  sweeping  off  to  the 
southwest,  Mount  Scott  a  few  miles  distant,  its  top 
being  graced  with  a  signal  station,  being  a  i)rominent 
landniark,  and  the  entire  surrounding  scenery  being- 
very  lovely.  The  fort  is  built  of  a  grey  or  blue  lime- 
stone, both  the  officers'  quarters  and  the  barracks  being 
sightly  and  commodious.  The  offices  and  storerooms 
seemed  to  be  scattered  around  promiscuously,  without 
any  regard  to  a  i)lan  or  system. 


FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  237 

A  host  of  Quartermaster's  em])loyeg  appeared  to  be 
as  ])leasaiitly  and  ])rotitably  en^a^ed  in  ''  putting-  in '' 
ten  hours  a  days  as  is  usual  on  all  of  Uncle  Sam's 
enterprises,  and  we  learned  that  when  (•onii)leted  it 
would  be  the  most  costly  and  best  ecpiipped  fort  in  the 
Union.  The  garrison  was  composed  entirely  of  colored 
cavalrymen  at  this  time,  and  the  imi)ression  made  on 
me  by  their  manners  and  appearance  was  very  unfavor- 
able, as  they  seemed  unsoldierlike  and  slovenly. 


238  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 


CHAPTEE  XXXVI. 


ENFORCED  SOBRIETY — THE  QUAKER  EXPERIMENT- 
GOOD  INDIANS — ON  THE  MARCH  —  THE  BULL- 
WHACKER — WHOA,  KENO  ! — THE  WASHITA  AGENCY— 
THE  DISPUTED  BOUNDARY. 

The  laws  in  reference  to  prohibiting  tlie  sale  of 
liquor  on  Indian  reservations  api)eared  to  be  rigidly 
enforced  at  Fort  Sill,  the  commanding  officer  apparently 
having  a  proper  degree  of  respect  for  the  Quaker 
agent,  these  latter  gentry  at  this  time  being  in  the  full 
tide  of  the  experiment  inaugurated  by  President  Grant, 
and  from  which  much  good  was  hoped,  the  event,  I 
believe  demonstrating  it  to  be  a  failure.  Xot  a 
dro])  of  anything,  either  alcoholic,  vinous  or  malt,  was 
to  be  obtained,  even  the  officers  being  required  to  use 
it  on  the  sly,  and  our  hospital  steward,  it  was  reported, 
sold  about  all  of  the  surplus  "stores"  in  his  charge  to 
the  Quartermaster's  employes  at  the  rate  of  ten  dollars 
for  a  (luart  bottle.  The  very  anomalous  condition  ex- 
isted of  sober  officers  and  men,  a  thing  hitherto 
unnoticed  in  my  experience,  and  worthy  of  note,  from 
its  rarity. 

The  princii)al  tribes  of  Indians  at  this  time  on  the 
reservation  were  the  Kiowas  and  some  detached  bands 
of  Comanches,  but  many  of  the  Arrai)ahoes  were  also 
hanging  around. 


FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  239 

The  experiment  of  dealing  with  the  Indians  by  moral 
suasion,  as  stated,  was  now  in  fnll  blast,  and  it  was 
hoped  would  be  successful,  at  least  by  the  philanthro- 
pists back  East,  but  the  frontiersman  looked  with  much 
skepticism  upon  it,  and  had  about  as  much  faith  in 
subduing  the  Indian  with  kindness  as  he  would  have  had 
in  civilizing  a  coyote  or  rattlesnake,  and  the  frontiers- 
man was  exactly  right.  The  commanding  officer  of  the 
Department  of  Texas  at  this  time,  it  must  be  said,  kept 
the  facts  before  the  authorities  at  Washington  that  the 
monthly  depredations  and  raids  into  Texas  were  all  the 
work  of  the  "good"  Indians  at  Fort  Sill,  but  the 
Quaker  agent  and  the  military  at  the  latter  place  denied 
it  all  the  while,  and  the  work  of  murder  and  plunder 
went  on,  until  events  occurred  in  the  summer  of  this 
year,  which  will  be  related  in  due  time,  that  stopped  it 
forevermore.  I  don't  mean  to  discuss  the  "  Indian 
question  " — it  has  been  a  vexed  one  for  a  century  or 
more,  and  will  be  settled  satisfactorily  when  they  have 
all  gone  to  the  "  happy  hunting  grounds,"  and  their 
places  are  filled  by  the  white  settlers,  I  did  think  at 
this  time,  however,  that  the  government  ought  either  to 
civilize  and  christianize  them  forthwith,  or  else  clean 
them  up  in  thort  metre  ;  either  send  missionaries  with 
good  military  backing,  do  away  with  the  little  military 
posts  only  big  enough  for  loafing  places  for  officers  or 
croquet  gTounds  for  their  wives,  and  put  large  and 
efficient  bodies  of  active  troops  in  the  field — one  thing 
or  the  other — and  give  the  worn-out  settlers  a  much 
needed  rest. 

The  population,  what  little  there  was  of  it,  in  the 
western  part  of  the  Indian  Territory — or  "the  Nation" 
as  it  is  universally  called — twenty  years  ago  was  of  as 
bad  a  tyi)e  as  could  be  found  on  this  i)lanet  anywhere. 
When  a  fellow  in  those  days  had  to  leave  Arkansas  or 


240  FIVE    YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

Missouri  he  emigTated  to  Northwest  Texas,  and  when 
his  course  of  life  in  that  section  became  so  erratic  as 
to  be  uni)leasant  to  his  nei|>'hbors  and  unsafe  for  him- 
self, he  ''  took  out "  for  "  the  Nation."  The  country 
north  of  the  Eed  river  in  those  days  bore  about  the 
same  relation  to  Texas  as  a  i)lace  of  refuge  that  Canada 
does  (or  did  until  recently)  to  the  eccentric  State 
Treasurer  or  bank  cashier  of  the  States.  These 
'^  exiles,"  many  of  whom  had  intermarried  with  the 
Indians,  were  at  this  time  resi)on8ible  for  a  very  great 
share  of  the  devilment  committed,  and  seemed  to  enter- 
tain the  popular  opinion  that  Texas,  with  its  wealth  of 
cattle  and  ponies,  was  their  legitimate  prey. 

The  post-trader's  establishment  at  Fort  Sill  at  this 
time  was  an  immense  affair;  the  large  garrison  and  the 
arm^'  of  civilian  employes  about  the  place,  as  well  as 
the  presence  of  several  thousand  Indians,  furnished  a 
large  and  })rofita.ble  patronage ;  but  a  very  few  years 
after  this  a  great  scandal  occurred  in  connection  with 
this  and  some  other  large  military  post-trading  estab- 
lishments, and  the  then  Secretary  of  War  went  down 
in  disgrace  under  the  developments. 

Major  McLellan  attracted  much  attention  among  the 
Indians  as  he  passed  back  and  forth  during  our  halt  at 
Sill,  and  from  the  gruntings  and  mutterings  of  the 
^Mn-aves,"  as  they  huddled  together  in  groups,  we 
learned  that  they  recognized  him  as  their  gallant  foe  in 
the  fight  of  July  previous  (see  chapter  33),  and  admitted 
that  he  had  "killed  heap  Indians"  in  that  engagement. 

Thursday,  May  4. — The  teams  that  transported  us 
from  Texas  having  gone  back,  a  "bull-train"  of  twenty- 
one  big  "prairie  schooners"  was  secured;  rations  and 
forage  were  drawn  for  a  thirty-five  days  trip,  and  at 
noon  we  took  up  our  line  of  march  for  Kansas,  having 


FIVE    YEARS   A    OAVALRYMAN.  241 

some  four  hniidred  inilos  before  us.  The  waji^^oiis  of 
our  train  were  <4einiii)e  speciiiieiis  of  their  clasvS,  and 
had  an  avera,i>e  (nipacity  of  five  tliousand  pounds  each, 
but  tlie  oxen  were  badly  broken;  in  fact,  many  of  them 
seemed  entirely  gi'een  and  jnst  oif  the  range.  Only 
about  half  of  the  command  was  mounted;  my  corn- 
pan}',  with  a  total  of  fifty-five  men  for  duty,  had  but 
twenty-eight  liorses  all  told,  and  the  other  companies 
about  the  same  proportion.  The  dismounted  men 
marched  with  the  wagon  train  in  order  to  help  the 
wagons  over  the  bad  ])laces  on  the  road,  while  those 
who  were  mounted  gathered  the  fut^l  and  carried  the 
water  on  making  camp,  and  did  the  guard  duty  at 
night,  besides  i)itching  the  line  of  tents.  The  mounted 
portion  got  into  camp  this  first  day  early  in  the  after- 
noon, on  a  small  stream,  but  ivghi  came  on  and  no  sign 
of  the  train,  so  we  hi'd  down  on  the  open  prah\'e  iaid 
went  sui)perless  to  bed,  with  only  our  ponchos  and 
saddle-blankets,  for  covering.  Along  about  midnight 
"  boots  and  saddles  "  (the  cavalry  "  long-roll  ")  sounded, 
and  we  found  that  the  train  was  stuck  in  a  creek 
some  five  miles  back,  and  needed  all  hands  to  help  it 
out.  We  saddled  up  and  had  a  brisk  trot  back  in  the 
moonlight,  getting  a  cup  of  coffee  and  "turning  in" 
about  two  o'clock  in  the  morning.  So  our  first  day's 
experience  with  the  bull-train  was  an  unsatisfactory 
one,  but  after  a  few  days  everything  got  to  running 
smoothly,  the  "  bull-whackers"  and  their  teams  getting 
"  acquainted  "  with  each  other. 

The  "  bull-whacker  "  of  the  plains  is  as  much  of  a 
character  in  his  way  as  is  the  "cow-hunter"  of  Texas, 
the  raftsman  of  the  Ohio,  the  M'ss!ss'pi)i  steamboat- 
man,  or  any  of  the  other  classes  of  men  whose  rough 
and  peculiar  ways  of  life  distinguish  them  so  widely 
from  ordinary  members  of  civilized  society.     Spend'ng, 


242  FIVE    YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

as  they  do,  the  greater  part  of  their  lives  in  the  open 
air,  their  wagon-sheets  their  only  roof-tree,  the  prairie 
or  the  forest  their  home,  and  tlie  camp-fire  of  sage 
brush  or  "chips "  tlieir  only  hearthstone,  they  are  in 
fact  nomads,  returning  at  intervals  to  the  haunts  of 
men,  where,  in  the  dissipations  and  scenes  peculiar  to 
frontier  towns,  their  hard-earned  wages  are  soon  gone — 
"blown  in"  tliey  call  it — and  they  are  off  for  another 
season's  work,  at  its  close  to  again  spend  their  earnings 
as  before.  3)irty,  long-haired,  unkempt,  their  feet  in 
bad  weather  encased  in  huge  cowhide  boots,  in  good 
weather  barefooted,  they  tramp  alongside  their  patient 
teams,  often  e'giit  or  ten  yolk  to  a  wagon,  brandishing 
the  long,  heavy  whip  that  "  i)ops  "  like  a  dragoon  pistol, 
and  alternating  this  amusement  by  yells  at  the  oxen  or 
singing  some  rude  song. 

One  of  our  "  whackers  "  had  a  mind  that  seemed  to 
run  on  games  of  chance,  for  he  had  named  his  animals 
after  the  various  pleasing  amusements  that  had  per- 
haps absorbed  his  last  season's  earnings.  It  was  very 
funny  to  hear  him  urging  his  team  along  with,  "  Gee, 
Faro !  Way,  Hondo !  Whoa,  Keno  !  You  Poker !  Now, 
there,  Monte  !  " — his  discourse  plentifully  and  artistically 
interlarded  with  the  most  complicated  and  expressive 
oaths,  for  these  men  have  reduced  i)rofanity  to  a 
science,  if  not  a  fine  art. 

The  life  of  these  men  has,  however,  to  them  a  charm 
about  it,  for  many  of  them  have  grown  gray  in  the 
service,  and  bke  their  brethren,  the  stage- drivers,  can 
relate  thrilling  experiences  of  the  anti-railroad  days 
when  they  hauled  goods  from  Leavenworth  or  Spring- 
field across  the  continent.  And  while  their  vocation 
will  survive  the  stage-coach  a  few  years  perhaps,  they, 
too,  are  passing  away,  and  the  iron-rail  and  the  iron- 
horse  wDl  take  their  places. 


FIVE    YEARS   A    OAVALRY>rAN.  243 

Saturday,  May  (J. — Marched  only  e'^ghi  miles  yes- 
terday, eainpi'iiii:  on  ('ache  creek,  and  got  an  early  start 
to-day,  our  route  lying  through  a  beautiful  rolling- 
country,  belts  of  timber  bordering  all  the  ravines  and 
watercourses.  At  times,  as  we  passed  over  a  rise  in 
the  pra-rie  which  commanded  a  widely  extended  view, 
the  beautiful  scene,  spread  out  before  us  like  a  pano- 
rama, presented  exactly  the  a|)pearance  of  a  highly 
cultivated  farming  country.  The  groves  and  belts  of 
timber,  with  the  shadows  chasing  each  other  over  the 
grassy  expanse,  had  ])recisely  the  "  effect  "  of  immense 
fields  of  grain  of  every  shade  from  sunny  yellow  to 
dark  brown,  and  it  was  hard  sometimes  to  dispel  the 
illusion  that  we  beheld  a  cultivated  and  thickly  inhab- 
ited country,  instead  of  (the  reality)  a  howling  wilder- 
ness, the  abode  at  times  of  nothing  but  wolves,  worth- 
less Indians,  or  some  equally  wortliless  refugee  from 
Texas  law — a  land,  indeed, 

'  'Where  every  prospect  pleases; 
And  only  man  is  vil?.  " 

We  halted  for  a  couple  of  hours  about  noon  in  a 
deep  ravine  noted  on  the  itinerary  as  "  Cedar  Spring," 
a  very  singular  formation  of  solid  rock,  both  sides  and 
bottom  being  as  smooth  and  regular  as  if  blasted  out 
by  art,  and  of  a  depth  probably  of  forty  feet  below  the 
level  of  the  prairie,  resembling  an  immense  trench  of 
stone-work,  no  rock  cropping  out  on  either  side  any- 
where within  sight.  The  streams  of  this  region  are 
nearly  all  marked  by  the  same  precipitous  banks,  as  in 
Texas,  but  deej),  black  mud  seems  more  common,  ren- 
dering the  crossings  more  difficult.  We  camped  this 
evening  on  the  Washita  river,  about  a  mile  from  the 
agency,  and  near  a  little  trading  house  kept  by  a  Dele- 
ware  Indian  named  Beaver,  a  son  of  the  Indian  of  the 
same  name  who  accompanied   Colonel  Marcy  when  he 


244  FIVE    YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

explored  this  region  on  his  Red  river  expedition.  [The 
dis|)ute  as  to  wliich  is  the  true  Red  river,  the  boundary 
between  the  Indian  Territory  and  the  Texas  Panhandle, 
has  never*  yet  been  settled — both  parties  to  the  dis- 
cussion claiming-  Colonel  Marcy  as  having  decided  iu 
their  favor  by  his  report  of  this  journey.  The  National 
government  claims  "  Greer  "  county,  while  the  Texans 
have  appropriated  it  to  themselves,  and  are  virtually 
in  possession.]  This  is  a  beautiful  place  and  a  large 
farm  near  the  agency  seemed  well  cultivated  and  looked 
thrifty  and  well  attended  to.  Several  Indians,  Washitas, 
Keechis,  Caddos  and  Waco«,  visited  our  cain|) — this 
being  their  reservation^ — all  of  these  being  remnants  of 
once  powerful  tribes,  whose  hunting  grounds  once 
covered  Northern  Texas,  but  who  were  removed  here 
by  the  government  about  1850.  They  were  i)eaceable 
and  friendly  (all  Indians  become  virtuous  when  no 
longer  able  to  indulge  in  vice),  and  were  engaged  iu 
cultivating  little  patches  of  corn,  drew  calico  shirts 
and  red  blankets,  hunted  when  seasonable,  and  lived 
off  the  agency  when  other  sui)plies  failed,  and  seemed 
to  be  filling  their  "manifest  destiny"  to  become  i)en- 
sioners  on  the  white  man,  contract  all  his  vices  but 
none  of  his  virtues,  and  to  gradually  but  surely  disap- 
pear frou)  off  the  earth. 


FIVE    YEARS    A    CAVALRYMAN.  245 


CHAPTER  XXXVII. 


STILL  ON  THE  MARCH — THE  WASHITA — THE  CHEYENNE 
AND  ARRAPAHOE  AGENCY — THE  SIBLEY  TENT — A 
NEW  MOTOR — THE  BEEF  HERD — A  DEFENSE  OF  THE 
PRAIRIE  DOG — NEARING  KANSAS. 

Sunday,  M^y  7. — The  Washita  river  is  about  twenty- 
five  yards  wide  at  this  point,  but  quite  fordable,  bottom 
solid  rock,  swift,  and  a  clear,  beautiful  stream.  The 
agent  had  a  very  tasteful  residence,  situated  on  the 
southern  exposure  of  a  high  hill,  about  half  a  mile 
north  of  the  river,  and  a  tine  school-house  was  in 
course  of  construction.  The  Quaker  agent,  Riebards, 
was  highly  spoken  of,  and  it  really  seemed  that  he  was 
making  some  little  impression  on  the  Indians  under 
his  care. 

The  column  halted  for  several  hours  on  a  creek  five 
miles  fi'om  the  agency  awaiting  the  arrival  of  the  train, 
which  had  a  laborious  time  crossing  a  range  of  sand 
hills  north  of  and  parallel  to  the  river,  during  which 
time  gxeat  numbers  of  the  Indians  visited  us,  and  the 
little  boys  amused  us  greatly  with  exhibitions  of  their 
skill  with  their  bows  and  arrows,  diving  in  the  creek 
after  coins  and  so  on.  Captain  Madden's  little  boy, 
Brady,  at  the  instance  of  some  of  the  men,  intimated 
to  one  of  the  little  Indians,  about  his  own  size,  his 
ability  to  throw  him  into  the  water,  upon  which  Master 


246  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

Brady's  heels  went  up  like  a  flash,  and  he  landed  souse 
in  the  creek,  to  the  great  amusement  of  all  hands  ex- 
cept himself.  Late  in  the  afternoon  the  train  caught 
up  and  we  moved  on,  our  route  continuing  over  a 
range  of  sand  hills  which  proved  so  difficult  that  it 
was  necessary  to  double-team  the  wagons.  Camped 
in  a  swampy,  unwholesome  looking  bottom,  through 
which  a  sluggish  creek  crawled  —  marked  "Alkali 
Creek"  on  the  itinerary — affording  d'sgusting-  water, 
which  left  the  impression,  after  attempting  to  bathe  in 
it,  of  your  skin  being  coated  with  mucilage.  Some  of 
the  wagons  had  to  be  unloaded  at  the  sand  Irlls  and 
the  loads  carried  over  by  the  men,  making  it  so  late 
when  camp  was  reached  that  it  was  determined  to  lie 
over  the  next  day.  Accomplished  but  eight  miles  to- 
day. 

Tuesday,  May  9. — Our  route  continued  over  the 
same  range  or  ranges  of  barren  hills  as  before,  scrub 
oak  and  sage  brush  being  the  only  vegetation.  Toward 
noon  a  cold,  drizzling  rain  set  in,  which  continued  all 
day,  and  getting  into  camp  three  or  four  hours  ahead 
of  the  train,  we  made  such  fires  as  we  could  on  the 
open  prairie,  and  sat  shivering  around  them.  These 
little  discomforts  being  part  and  ])arcel  of  a  soldier's 
life,  are  not  worth  recording,  except  that  it  is  in  depict- 
ing the  little  details,  that  the  whole  picture  can  be  com- 
pleted. 

The  camps  selected  by  our  commander  were  invaria- 
bly as  distant  from  both  wood  and  water  as  it  was 
possible  to  locate  them,  unless,  as  one  of  the  men 
remarked,  "  he  thought  he  could  get  nearer  to  the  water 
in  an  opposite  direction  by  going  further  away  from 
where  he  was." 

However,  on  this  trip  I  was  ra])idly  nearing  the 
expiration   of  my  term   of  service,  and  felt,  as  some 


FIVE    YEvVKS    A    CAVALRYMAN.  247 

fellow  trnrinrly  situated  ouce  expressed  it,  "as  if  I 
eould  stiiiid  on  my  bead  for  the  few  reniaiiiiiij>-  months 
if  iieeesj'.ary,"  and  the  i)eeiiliarities  of  fellows  like  our 
]\laior  would  worry  me  no  more. 

1  am  i»la(i  to  state,  after  all  these  years,  that  the 
majority  of  oiticers  are,  as  a  rule,  kind  and  considerate 
enough  toward  enlisted  men,  but  when  you  happen  to 
strike  one  of  a  naturally  brutal  temperament,  the  op- 
l)ortunitie;;  afforded  by  the  eomparatively  irres])on ry'ble 
1)0  ition  of  an  olticer  loward  a  soldier  too  often  tempt 
them  to  exercise  their  very  arbitrary  i)ower.  We  were 
afforded  several  instances  of  this  on  the  part  of  the 
Major  who  commanded  our  detachment  on  th's  march, 
but  havin<»-  survived  my  experiences  with  such  as  he, 
I  will  not  watte  any  of  my  rapklly  dimn'shino;'  spacs 
on  hini  and  hi;;  peculiarities. 

Wednesday,  May  10. — This  morning  broke  so  very 
cool  after  the  rainstorm  of  yesterday  that  overcoats 
were  comfortable.  We  passed  the  south  or  main  fork 
of  the  Canadian  river  to-day,  the  characteristics  of  the 
stream  being  similar  to  all  the  other  large  rivers  in  the 
Southwest,  except  that  it  seemed  by  far  the  largest 
one  I  had  yet  seen.  The  north  bank  was  low  and 
muddy,  and  made  it  necessary  for  the  pioneers  to  do 
some  corduroying  of  the  road. 

Speaking  of  the  "  bull- whacker,"  I  was  greatly 
diverted  at  an  expedient  resorted  to  b^^  one  of  them 
to-day  to  start  his  team.  He  had  exhausted  h-s  re- 
sources in  plying  his  whip,  his  vocabulary  of  asscrtel 
oaths  had  also  run  out,  the  "  wheelers"  continuing  to 
placidly  chew  their  cuds  and  making  no  effort  to  start. 
Suddenly  drop])ing  his  whip,  the  irate  whacker  seized 
a  twig  about  an  inch  in  diameter,  split  it  nearly  its 
whole  length,  and  inserting  the  end  of  the  animal's  tail 
in  the  split,  began  to  rub  the  stick  vigorously  up  and 


248  FIVE    YEARS    A    CAVALRYMAN. 

down  after  the  maimer  of  a  siiiall  boy  making  a  chest- 
nut whistle.  Did  that  critter  gitf  In  the  language  of 
the  i)lain8 — yon  bet !  I  was  once  more  a  witness  to 
the  inevitable  trinm])li  of  mind  over  matter. 

We  were  accompanied  from  Texas  by  a  beef  con- 
tractor, who  started  from  there  with  his  herd  for  the 
sui)ply  of  the  commissariat,  numbering  about  seventy- 
five  or  eighty  head.  A  day  or  two  after  leavng  Jacks- 
boro  the  herd  stampeded,  and  we  never  saw  them  until 
to-day,  when  we  were  rejoiced  to  have  them  come  up 
with  us,  and  having  lived  on  bacon  so  long  were  glad 
to  again  get  fresh  meat.  It  was  noticed  from  time  to 
time,  as  the  trip  continued,  that  our  bull-team  would 
have  a  new  steer  in  it  that  looked  suspiciously  like 
some  of  the  beef  herd,  and  that  the  beef  herd  on  these 
occasions  was  seen  to  contain  specimens  of  work-oxen 
that  bore  a  striking  resemblance  to  some  that  had  pre- 
viously given  evidence  of  playing  out,  and  suffeiing 
from  galled  necks  or  such  ailments.  It  was  a  singular 
coincidence,  too,  that  the  beef  (?)  killed  on  these  days 
was  usually  tough  and '' sorry,"  and  many  a  joke  was 
gotten  off  one  the  subject.  But  on  of  the  most  curious 
features  connected  with  this  ''herd"  was  that  it  started 
from  Jacksboro,  as  stated,  numbering  about  eighoy 
head,  one  was  killed  every  day  for  thirty  or  forty  days, 
and  when  we  rolled  into  Fort  Marker,  and  the  ct  ttle 
inspector  on  the  Smoky  met  our  command,  it  contained 
exactly  one  hundred  head.  This  was  partly  accounted 
for  from  our  march  being  pretty  close  to  the  old  Ghis- 
holm  trail,  and  i)erhaps  stray  cattle  dropped  from  some 
passing  herd,  and,  feeling  lonely,  had  joined  our  herd 
for  com])any ! 

Thursday,  May  11. — Crossed  the  North  Fork  of  the 
Canadian  and  i)assed  through  the  Cheyenne  and  Ar- 
rapahoe    agency    about    noon.     Some    two    hundred 


FIVE   YEARS    A    CAVALRYMAN.  249 

"lodj>es"  of  these  Tndians  were  at  or  near  the  agency, 
and  the  whole  valley  was  dotted  with  their  tents  or 
"teepees"  for  niiles  up  and  down  the  river.  The  wig- 
wams of  these  tribes  are  similar  in  constnietion  to  and 
reminded  me  more  of  the  traditional  and  often  de- 
scribed and  delineated  wigwams  than  any  I  had  yet 
seen,  being  regularly  cone-shai)ed  and  covered  with 
buffalo  robes,  skin  side  ont,  some  of  them  beautifully 
j)ainted.  It  was  this  style  of  tent  that  gave  Colonel 
Sibley  the  idea  fi*om  which  the  famous  "  Sibley  tent" 
was  evolved,  and  which  is  to-day  the  acknowledged 
ideal  tent. 

Two  schools  were  in  operation  at  this  reservation, 
and  as  we  rode  by  we  could  hear  the  voices  of  the  little 
savages,  led  by  their  lady  teacher,  joining  in  a  simple 
hymn,  the  eff'ect  of  which  was  very  touching,  and  if  the 
experiments  were  failures,  too  much  praise  cannot  be 
aAvarded  the  devoted  men  and  women  who  undertook 
to  make  the  theory  successful.  Xo  whiskey  can  be 
obtained,  since  the  advent  of  the  Quaker  agents,  any- 
where in  the  Territory,  and  thus  one  of  the  most 
mischievous  causes  of  crime  is  out  of  reach  of  both 
the  Indian  aiul  his  white  brother,  who  share  alike  the 
love  of  fire-water. 

Camped  at  Caddo  Spring,  a  few  miles  north  of  the 
reservation,  a  wonderful  one  it  is,  pouring  out  of  a  cir- 
cular opening  about  six  inches  diameter  in  the  fiice  of 
the  vertical  rock,  and  having  a  temperature  of  about 
forty-five  degrees  all  the  year  around. 

Friday,  May  12. — Our  route  to-day  was  over  a  level 
prairie,  and  for  miles  passed  over  or  through  a  con- 
tinuous prairie-dog  village,  the  cheery  little  inhabitants 
affording  much  amusement  to  many  of  the  men,  who 
xhad  never  seen  any  of  them  before.  I  had  often  seen 
small  settlements  of  them  in  Texas,    but   to-day    we 


250  FIVE    YEARS    A    CAVALKYMAN. 

seemed  to  i)ass  through  one  of  their  uietropoli — their 
mounds  extending-  miles  and  miles  in  every  direction. 
On  this  and  subsequent  occasions  I  was  enabled  to 
d'spel  some  of  the  illusions  I  had  labored  under  as  to 
the  habits  of  this  animal,  said  illusions  having  been 
imbibed  from  travelers'  tales  told  in  regard  to  them. 
In  the  first  place,  their  holes  are  not  laid  out  with 
regularity ;  they  are  not  occupied  in  common  by  the 
owl,  the  rattlesnake  and  the  owner  proper ;  and  they 
do  not  communicate  under  ground.  The  rattlesnake 
does  occupy  their  holes  at  times,  but  they  first  kill  and 
eat  up  the  little  proprietor,  or  else  take  possession  of 
one  from  which  the  owner  has  lied  or  has  abandoned. 
In  regard  to  the  prairle-owFs  companionship  with  him, 
there  does  seem  to  be  some  bond  of  symi>athy  between 
them,  the  owl  being  seen  to  hover  around  the  entrance 
to  the  house  as  if  watching  the  preuiises  in  the  dog's 
absence,  and  uttering  a  note  of  warning  and  fluttering 
about  at  the  approach  of  an  enemy,  but  it  is  more  likely 
his  owlship  is  watchhig  a  chance  to  steal  something 
himself,  for  they  undoubtedly  make  their  own  nests  else- 
where on  the  prairie.  The  ])rairie-dogis  a  cheerful  and 
cunn'ng  little  fellow,  however,  and  I  am  glad  to  be  able 
to  try  and  clear  his  character  from  the  odium  that  has 
rested  on  him,  owing  to  the  unenviable  and  very  dis- 
reputable company  he  has  been  accused  of  keeping. 

Saturday  May  13.— The  heat  has  been  excessive 
for  the  past  day  or  two,  and  we  miss  the  refreshing  and 
delightful  breeze  that  serves  to  temper  and  render 
supportable  the  hottest  weather  in  Texas.  Early  in 
the  day  we  crossed  the  Cimarron  or  Eed  Fork  of  the 
Arkansas  river,  very  low  at  this  time.  The  north  bank 
was  a  long,  hard  pull,  rising  gradually  for  a  couple  of 
miles,  and  very  sandy.  Camped  on  Meade's  creek 
iibout  noon,  the  best  camp  we  have  had  for  some  days, 


FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  251 

wood  and  water  abundant,  and  fine  fishing,  some  cat  of 
thirteen  i)oiinds  being  caught.  Game  has  been  very 
scarce  since  crossing  Ked  river,  no  buffalo  have  been 
seen,  and  only  an  occasional  antelope  or  turkey. 

Sunday  May  14. — The  march  to-day  was  long,  hot 
and  dusty,  the  oxen  suffering  gieatly,  as  we  struck  no 
water  holes  after  leaving  cam])  until  we  halted  for  the 
night  on  Torbitt's  Spring,  twenty-two  miles  from  our 
last  camp.  This  si)ring  (or  springs)  forms  a  literal  oasis, 
welling  up  in  the  bottom  of  a  shallow  basin,  and  not  a 
twig  or  bush  big  enough  for  a  toothpick  in  sight,  the 
prairie  stretching  off  into  limitless  space  on  every 
hand.  Everybody  turned  out  and  gathered  buffalo 
chips,  which  make  capital  fuel,  burning  slowly  with  a 
very  white  ash,  and  during  combustion  evolving  none 
of  the  disagreeable  odor  which  might  be  expected. 

Monday,  May  15. — A  heavy  thunderstorm  during 
the  night  having  thoroughly  saturated  our  stock  of  fuel, 
we  were  forced  to  begin  the  day's  march  on  a  slim 
breakfast — cold  water,  hard-tack  and  raw  bacon.  Went 
into  camp,  after  accomplishing  only  fourteen  miles,  on 
Skeleton  creek,  a  small  stream  entirely  devoid  of  tim- 
ber, no  underbrush  even,  and  the  rain  ha\dng  soaked 
our  fuel,  we  went  to  bed  on  a  repetition  of  the  cold 
"  grub  "  of  the  morning,  the  train  getting  in  very  late, 
owing  to  the  difficult  road,  broken  by  ravines  and 
gullies. 


252  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 


CHAPTER  XXXVIII. 


OSAGE  GRAVES  —  OKLAHOMA  —  THE  ROFNDARY  —  IN 
KANSAS — PLENTY  OF  WHISKEY — IN  THE  SETTLE- 
MENTS— SCHOOL  HOUSES^DUGOUTS — ^AOROSS  THE 
ARKANSAS— WICHITA— NEARING  THE  END. 

AYednesday,  May  17. — Laid  over  yesterday  to  rest 
the  teams  and  wasli  our  clothes,  and  moved  out  of 
camp  in  good  season.  Crossed  tlie  Salt  Fork  of  the 
Arkansas,  and  camped  on  Pond  creek,  some  two  miles 
north  of  the  crossing,  a  beautiful  spot,  and  affording- 
the  best  grazing  we  have  had  for  sonie  days. 

The  country  through  which  we  had  been  marching 
for  a  couple  of  days  is  now  (April,  ISSD)  the  scene  of 
one  of  the  most  extraordinary  migrations,  so  to  speak, 
that  our  country  has  ever  witnessed,  incident  to  the 
opening  of  the  new  territory  of  Oklahoma,  some  two 
million  acres  of  which  was  thrown  open  by  act  of  Con- 
gress and  proclamation  of  the  President,  taking  effect 
at  noon,  April  22.  For  weeks  the  ])rospective  settlers 
("boomers"  they  called  themselves)  had  been  camped 
all  along  the  border  waiting  for  the  signal  when  they 
could  enter  legally,  and  only  restrained  by  the  presence 
of  all  the  available  soldiers  in  the  Department.  Noth- 
ing in  the  "  fall  of  '49  or  spring  of  '50,"  or  in  the  later 
Pike's  Peak  excitement,  is  said  to  have  equalled  it. 
Many  amusing  scenes  were  witnessed,  and  much  native 


FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  253 

wit  exhibited  amoii^'  the  "boomers,"  one  of  wliose 
wa«»oiis  is  said  to  have  had  displayed  on  the  slieet  in 
bold  letters : 

"Whito-capped  ill  Iiidiaiiy, 
Cliiiitz-l)ugK''d  in  Illinoy, 
Ciclonod  in  Xebrasky, 
Prohibited  in  Kansas, 
Oklahoma  or  bust ! " 

In  the  vicinity  of  our  camp  were  several  Indian 
graves,  nearly  all  of  which  had  been  opened,  ai)parently 
by  persons  in  search  of  firearms,  which  were  often 
buried  with  the  "  braves."  The  graves  were  each  about 
six  feet  square,  and  dug  some  three  feet  deep  in  tlie 
ground,  and  built  up  about  the  same  height  above  the 
surface,  the  sides  formed  of  logs  neatly  dovetailed  to- 
gether at  the  corners.  The  body  Avas  i>laced  within 
the  grave  in  a  sitting  posture,  the  hands  clasi)ed  around 
the  knees,  and  the  Avhole  enveloped  in  a  buffalo  robe  ; 
while  the  bow  and  arrows,  tin  cup,  si)Oon,  knife  and 
fork  and  other  utensils,  supposed  to  be  necessary  to 
the  comfort  of  the  deceased  on  his  journey  to  the 
spirit  land,  Avere  placed  within  reach.  Our  command 
completed  the  work  of  desecration  commenced  by 
parties  before  us,  by  carrying  off  the  timber  for  fuel, 
but  no  doubt  the  silent  warriors  will  continue  to  sleej) 
as  soundly  as  if  the  sod  was  still  green  above  them, 
and  their  rei)Ose  had  been  undisturbed  bj'  ruthless 
hands.  We  learned  from  a  settler,  whose  ranche  was 
near  by,  that  these  were  the  graves  of  the  Osages  who 
had  died  of  some  kind  of  epidemic  during  the  previous 
winter,  at  which  time  a  large  party  had  camped  along 
the  Salt  Fork.  The  train  was  again  very  late  in  getting 
into  camp — in  fact,  an  ox-train  is  entirely  unsuitable 
transportation  for  a  cavalry  command,  and  Ave  had 
learned  by  this  time  not  to  expect  our  supper  until  long- 
after  Ave  reached  camp  each  day. 


254  FIVE    YEAKS    A    CAVALRYMAN. 

Friday,  May  19. — Early  to-day  came  in  sight  of  a 
stone  pillar,  erected  on  a  high  bluff  to  the  north  of  us^ 
which  we  learned  indicated  tlie  dividing  line  at  that 
point  between  the  Indian  Territory  and  the  State  of 
Kansas.  About  ten  o'clock  we  crossed  Bluff  creek^ 
the  formation  of  which  is  peculiar,  the  diff'erent  strata 
of  rock,  forming  the  bed  and  banks  through  which  the 
stream  had  cut  its  way,  being  of  wonderful  regularity 
and  color. 

We  were  now  on  the  soil  of  Kansas,  and  an  evidence 
of  our  again  being  among  the  haunts  of  civilized  man 
was  the  existence  of  a  whiskey  shop  within  a  rod  or 
two  of  the  line.  Our  Major  at  once  rode  up  to  the 
door  of  the  hut  in  question,  and  with  an  assumption  of 
much  military  style  ordered  the  proprietor  "  not  to  sell 
any  liquor  to  his  men.''  The  unterrified  settler,  how- 
ever, not  having  the  fear  of  the  military  before  his 
eyes,  replied:  "Look  here,  mister!  this  here  ain't 
Texas,  whar  they  have  military  law,  nor  it  ain't  the 
Nation,  whar  they  have  Quaker  law — but  it's  free 
Kansas ;  I've  paid  for  my  license,  got  whiskey  to  sell, 
and  am  goin'  to  sell  it — do  you  hear  me  f  "  Upon  this 
the  Major  moved  on  a  mile  or  two  up  the  creek,  adja- 
cent to  the  embryo  town  of  Caldwell,  consisting  at  this 
time  of  a  little  box  grocery  store  and  two  unoccupied 
dwellings—nothing  more. 

Saturday,  May  130. — Marched  eleven  miles  to-day 
through  a  drenching  rain,  the  rich  black  soil  of  this 
region  becoming  almost  impracticable  for  heav3'  wagons 
after  a  few  hours  wet  weather,  and  went  into  camp  on 
the  Shakasker  river — or  creek.  Since  crossing  the 
Kansas  line  increasing  evidences  of  civilization  are 
seen,  the  little  settlements  all  possessing  a  school-house 
of  more  or  less  pretention,  no  matter  how  sorry  and 
meagre  the  other  "  improvements  "  were.     This  country 


FIVE    YEAKS    A    CAVALRYMAN.  255 

seemed  to  possess  many  of  the  cliaraeteri sties  of  West- 
ern Texas,  in  the  way  of  sparse  and  stunted  timber, 
but  I  imagined  the  grazino-  qualities  of  the  land  to  be 
inferior  to  that  State.  The  "])icket"  house  is  no 
longer  seen,  but  the  settler,  in  the  transient  state  be- 
tween a  camp  and  a  house,  seemed  to  have  devised 
the  "dugout"  as  the  most  practicable  shelter.  Our 
route  for  this  and  some  succeeding  days  was  across 
the  great  valley  of  tlie  Arkansas,  to  which  ail  the 
streams  crossed  are  tributary. 

Sunday,  May^  21. — Marched  twelve  miles  and 
camped  on  Slate  creek,  a  small,  sluggish  and  muddy 
stream,  the  water  offensive  to  the  taste  and  smell.  A 
l)arty  of  Kaw  and  Osage  Indians  visited  our  cam])  for 
the  pur])Ose  of  begging  a  beef,  which  they  obtained. 
The  latter  are  the  linest  looking  Indians  I  have  yet 
seen,  the  men  large  and  well  formed,  wearing  their  hair 
roached — that  is  to  say,  a  ridge  of  about  two  inches 
wide  is  left  growing  long  from  front  to  rear,  the  balance 
of  the  scalp  being  shaved  close,  giving  them  an  ex- 
ceedingly ferocious  and  villahious  appearance.  My 
imagination  had  been  tired  in  my  youth  as  to  the  beau- 
teous Indian  maiden  to  be  found  in  the  Western  wilds  ; 
Cooper  and  Longfellow  had  created  an  ideal,  but  I 
never  yet  saw  one  who  was  comparatively  good  look- 
ing, and  I  concluded  that  the  pretty  maiden  and  the 
ideal  brave  had  both  died  before  my  time. 

This  tribe  still  owned  a  strij)  of  land  four  miles  wide 
along  the  Kansas  border,  and  although  ostensibly 
friendl},  the  settlers  gave  them  a  very  bad  name,  stating 
that  they  frequently  robbed  and  maltreated  stray  white 
men  who  fell  into  their  hands,  and  even  killed  them 
when  they  thought  they  were  reasonablj"  certain  to 
escape  detection  and  punishment. 

Monday",  May'  22. — Crossed  a  small  and  very  beautiful 


256  FIVE   YEARS    A    CAVALRYMAN. 

river,  having  the  musical  name  Mln-ne-squah,  its  banks 
heavily  wooded,  and  the  valley  fertile  and  covered  with 
splendid  grass,  and  during  an  hour  or  two  halt  we 
caught  all  the  tish  we  could  carrj .  Camped  this  day 
on  Cowskin  creek,  a  dirty  and  muddy  little  stream,  but 
in  the  midst  of  quite  a  settlement. 

Tuesday,  May  23. — Crossed  the  Arkansas  river 
about  ten  o'clock,  and  passed  through  a  thrifty  litt'e 
town  called  Wichita,  said  to  have  a  population  of  about 
one  thousand,  and  bearing  every  indication  of  being  a 
neat  and  prosperous  })lace.  It  is  on  the  left  bank  of 
the  river,  about  a  mile  east  of  the  Little  Arkansas 
river,  which  enters  it  from  the  northwest.  Our  little 
Major,  presuming  that  the  officers  and  men  might  want 
to  make  some  small  purchases  after  the  long  march, 
and  considering  it  his  prerogative  to  do  all  in  his  power 
to  make  it  uncomfortable  for  all  the  "  unfortunates '' 
under  him,  passed  straight  through  the  town  without 
halting,  and  went  into  camp  in  the  middle  of  a  plowed 
field  five  miles  up  the  valley,  selecting  the  camp  with 
his  usual  reference  to  distance  from  both  wood  and 
water,  and,  in  addition,  having  no  grass.  The  owner  of 
the  "claim"  was  very  indignant  at  our  camping  in  his 
field,  the  trampling  of  our  horses  of  course  destroying 
his  crop,  and  protested  against  it,  but  the  Major, 
"clothed  "in  his  "little  brief  authority,"  and  used  to 
disregarding  the  rights  of  citizens  in  Texas,  paid  no 
attention  to  him,  and  the  poor  fellow  was  ruined  for 
that  year.  However,  this  was  about  the  last  instance 
I  witnessed  of  this  kind  of  tyranny ;  a  few  days  more 
and  we  got  into  the  "  settlements,"  where  civil  law  was 
supreme,  and  where  the  most  humble  Justice  of  the 
Peace,  in  the  execution  of  his  office,  lanked  all  the 
little  Majors  in  the  service.  This  was  a  refreshing 
condition  of  affairs  to   one  who  lor  five  years  had  seen 


FIVE    YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  257 

the  civil  law  practically  ignored — seen  legal  documents 
executed  before  some  Second  Lieutenant,  marriages 
performed  by  an  Adjutant,  and  the  burial  service  made 
a  mockery  of  by  being  recited  over  some  poor  fellow's 
grave  by  one  with  whom  it  was  impossible  to  associate 
anything  either  reverent,  sacred  or  solemn. 


258  FIVE   YEARS   A   CAVALRYMAN. 


CHAPTER  XXXIX. 


THE  MODEL  CITY  MARSHAL — HEDGES — ELK — PLANT- 
ING TREES — INMAN  LAKE — OLD  AHRBERG  REDE- 
VIVUS — THE  RED-HOT  TOWN — END  OF  THE  CHIS- 
HOLM  TRAIL — ON  THE  SMOKY  HILL  RIVER. 

The  valley  of  the  Arkansas  at  this  point,  the  mouth 
of  the  Little  Arkansas,  and  both  up  and  down  the  river, 
bore  evidence  of  rapidly  filling  up  with  an  enterprising 
and  intelligent  population,  and  the  never-failing  topic 
of  conversation  was  their  prospective  chances  for  a 
railroad,  this  section  being  at  this  time  beyond  the 
limits  of  railroad  building;  but  the  Atchison,  Topeka 
and  Santa  Fe  was  in  the  course  of  construction,  an  I 
in  the  near  future  this  region  was  destined  to  teem  with 
population  and  to  be  covered  with  a  network  of  roads. 

In  the  evening  a  party  of  us  obtained  permission  to 
visit  the  town  for  the  purpose  of  making  some  pur- 
chases, getting  shaved,  and  obtaining  a  square  meal, 
the  latter  at  a  little  restaurant  which  I  soon  discovered 
was  kept  by  people  from  my  native  State,  on  the 
strength  of  which  we  got  the  very  best  they  could 
produce.  It  is  wonderful  how  the  hearts  of  folks  in 
the  far  West  warm  toward  those  recently  coming  from 
their  own  states,  which  they  still  cling  to  in  memory  as 
the  home  of  their  childhood,  and  which  is  never 
entirely  replaced  by  the  newer  one  acquired  later  on 


FIVE   YEAS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  250 

ill  life.  After  supper  some  of  the  boys  adjourned  to  a 
respectable  lookinj:^  billiard  hall  to  enjoy  a  game  or 
two,  tying  our  horses  to  the  rack,  not  fearing  that  they 
would  be  molested  on  the  public  street,  but  on  leavin^j^ 
found  the  best  horse  gone.  Search  was  instituted,  but 
without  avail,  and  the  man  losing  his  horse  rode  behind 
me  to  camp,  both  sadder  and  wiser.  A  few  weeks 
later  he  found  (in  army  parlance)  that  horse  "  prancing 
over  the  pay-roll"  to  the  tune  of  one  hundred  and 
thirty-two  dollars  and  fifty  cents. 

Subsequent  experience  along  the  Kansas  border 
convinced  me  that  the  toughest  localities  I  had  seen  in 
Texas — Jacksboro  in  its  palmy  days  or  elsewhere — were 
quiet,  moral  and  peaceable  places  of  residence  com- 
pared to  the  border  and  railroad  towns  of  Kansas  at 
this  time.  The  most  villainous-looking  fellow  we  saw 
around  town  that  night  was  the  city  marshal,  and  we 
afterwards  learned  that  he  was  generally  supposed  to 
be  "  in  "  with  a  gang  of  horse  thieves  near  by. 

Friday,  May  2Q. — For  the  past  three  days  our  route 
has  been  up  the  valley  of  the  Arkansas,  in  a  X.  X.  W. 
direction,  the  soil  apparently  rich,  and  the  water  good 
and  abundant,  but  the  great  (and  it  seemed  to  me  in- 
surmountable) drawback  was  the  scarcity  of  timber,  a 
scarcity,  in  fact,  amounting  to  an  absolute  dearth,  with 
the  exception  of  the  almost  worthless  cottonwood  that 
skirted  the  streams.  [Since  these  sketches  were 
written,  millions  of  trees  have  been  planted  in  Western 
Kansas  and  Nebraska  under  the  wise  and  liberal  laws 
of  those  States,  and  the  once  treeless  plains  are  now 
covered  with  rapidly  growing  forests,  tending  to  pro- 
duce a  largely  increased  rainfall,  and  rendering  suc- 
cessful agriculture  a  certainty.]  Notwithstanding  this 
serious  obstacle,  the  whole  country  seemed  covered 
with  claims,  the  mode  of  locating  or  securing  the  same 


200  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

l)eing  simple.  A  furrow,  or  furrows,  is  run  around  the 
l)OuiKiary  of  the  tract,  and  four  rails  laid  on  each  other 
in  tlie  shai)e  of  a  rectangle,  and  the  claim  is  established 
— that  is,  for  a  certa'n  period — within  which  a  house 
(a  bona  fide  dwelling)  must  be  built  and  a  well  sunk  to 
a  depth  of  thh^ty  feet.  LUtle  houses,  about  eight  by 
ten  in  size,  dotted  the  country  as  far  as  the  eye  could 
reach.  The  bois  d'arc,  in  the  absence  of  timber,  fur- 
nished the  fencing — barbed  wire,  like  the  telephone 
and  incandescent  light,  being  still  in  the  future.  After 
the  furrows  are  plowed,  and  the  bois  d'arc  seed  planted, 
no  one  is  allowed  to  drive  across  them  any  more  than 
if  the  hedge  was  already  grown  and  in  sight.  I  noticed 
the  following  original  notice  written  on  a  board  and 
stuck  up  by  the  side  of  a  newly  ploughed  furrow  to-day  : 


CEEP  OFF  THESE  HEDGIN. 


Saturday,  May  27. — Our  route  to-day  was  over  a 
boundless  prairie,  not  a  bush  or  twig  to  relieve  the 
Uionotony,  and  no  fuel  to  be  obtained  at  our  camp. 
Prairie  chickens  and  antelope  seen  in  abundance,  and  a 
dro\'e  of  elk — live  in  number — trotted  easily  and  ma- 
jestically with  their  long,  swinging  gait  out  of  reach  of 
our  best  horses.  Passed  a  large  pond  or  lake,  in  the 
open  i)rairie,  of  several  acres  in  extent,  just  on  the  line 
of  the  old  overland  stage  route  from  Springtield, 
Missouri,  to  Santa  Fe,  known  as  "  Inman's  Lake,"  a 
])Opular  superstition  in  regard  to  which  was  that  it  was 
unfathomable,  but  like  most  of  the  other  ''tales  of 
travelers,"  a  humbug.  The  hills  indicating  the  course 
of  the  Smoky  Hill  river  could  be  seen  far  off  to  the 
northward  as  we  went  into  camp. 

Sunday,  May  28. — Camped,  after  a  hot  and  dusty 
ride  over  the  same  high  prairies  as  yesterday,  on 
Thompson's  creek,  in  a  beautiful  little  valley,  filled  with 


FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  2()1 

the  thriftiest  looking  farms  and  farmhouses  T  have  seen 
for  many  a  day.  Several  citizens  came  out  frojii  Fort 
Harker  to  our  camp,  most  of  them  behig-  rum-sellers, 
or  others  of  tlie  classes  which  scent  the  soldier  afar 
off,  and  re.nard  him  as  the'r  legitimate  prey,  especially 
about  pay-day,  which  these  gentr3^  informed  us  would 
occur  on  our  arrival  at  Harker,  where  the  paymaster 
was  in  waiting  for  us. 

Monday,  May  29. — Marched  through  Fort  Harker 
about  nine  o'clock  this  morning  and  went  into  camp, 
recross-ng  the  Smoky  Hill  river  a  mile  southwest  of 
the  place,  having  marched  four  hundred  and  forty-nine 
miles  since  leaving  Fort  Eichardson.  "  Old  -'  Ahrberg 
was  now  again  on  h's  "native  heath."  Sundry  vicis- 
situdes had  overtaken  h'm  soon  after  the  arrival  of  his 
company  at  Fort  Eichardson  ;  he  had  been  on  detached 
service  and  at  posts  other  than  I  was  at,  and  for  years 
I  had  not  seen  or  heard  of  him,  but  he  had  accompanied 
the  command  to  Kansas;  and  although  time  had  not 
dealt  altogether  gently  with  him,  he  possessed  all  h"s 
old-thne  characteristics,  and  told  us  many  a  blood- 
curdb'ng  story  of  the  stirring  days  of  "  border  ruirian- 
ism  "  on  these  pla'ns,  all  of  which  he  claimed  to  have 
seen  and  taken  part  in,  and  his  recitals  had  lost  none  of 
the^r  old-time  "  vigor."  If  he  is  stUl  on  "this  side  "  I 
wish  him  well,  for  he  was  an  entertaining  old  fellow, 
and  his  stories,  while  they  afforded  him  pleasure  (he 
believed  them  all  himself,  so  often  had  he  told  them), 
harmed  no  one. 

Heard  the  whistle  of  a  locomotive  for  the  first  time 
in  four  years,  and  as  I  saw  the  mail  train  of  the  Kansas 
Pacific  road  rushing  eastward,  felt  nearer  the  "  settle- 
ments "  than  I  had  for  a  long  while. 

Tuesday,  May  30. — The  command  was  paid  off  to- 
day by  Major  Brooke,  and  immediately  the  men  began 


262  FIVE   YEATtS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

disappearing  in  the  direction  of  the  town  of  Ellsworth, 
some  three  or  four  miles  distant,  until  by  night  there 
was  scarcely  a  corporal's  guard  left  in  camp.  A  patrol 
sent  to  town  in  the  evening  was  kept  busy  bringing 
back  drunken  crowds  all  night,  and  many  of  them  re- 
turned minus  })]8tols,  money,  or  both,  only  to  wake  up 
next  day  to  a  "realizing'^  sense  of  their  folly. 

Ellsworth,  Hays  City,  Abilene  and  the  other  like 
towns  along  the  line  of  the  Kansas  Pacific  railroad  at 
this  time  were  fearful  places,  had  no  antecedent  types 
and  have,  I  think,  never  been  equalled  since  anywhere. 
Large  garrisons  were  stationed  near  most  of  them,  and 
they  were  the  shipping  points  for  all  the  Texas  cattle 
sent  to  market  by  rail,  as  no  railroad  at  this  date  pene- 
trated the  State,  and  the  only  markets  were  Xew 
Orleans,  California  or  the  East,  reached  either  this  way, 
or  else  the  herds  were  driven  all  of  the  distance  to 
Leavenworth  or  Kansas  City. 

The  Texas  cowboy  of  this  date  was  a  perfect  walk- 
ing arsenal,  and,  when  he  came  off  the  ''  Chisholm 
trail,"  was  usually  '''  wild  and  woolly,"  and  ready  for  any 
emergency ;  and,  besides,  for  some  reason  unknown  to 
me,  he  looked  on  the  Kansas  folks  as  his  natural 
enemies,  the  feeling  being  reciprocal.  The  soldiers 
near  these  towns  were  just  as  ready  for  a  fray  as  the 
cowboy  was ;  the  vile  characters  who  run  the  saloons 
and  other  "  deadfalls,"  in  the  box-house  towns  that  had 
sprung  up  with  mushroom  growth,  were  a  good  match 
for  the  other  two  classes,  and  between  them  all  there 
were  nightly  orgies  of  every  kind  that  perhaps  have 
n<o  counterpart  to-day.  What  the  boys  call  "  painting 
the  town  red"  now,  is  a  gentle  and  harmless  pastime 
compared  with  the  "  shooting  bees  "  of  those  days,  the 
net  results  of  one  such  at  Hays,  while  I  was  there, 
being  three  citizens  and  two  soldiers  killed,  and  two  of 


FIVE    YEARS    A    CAVALRYMAN.  263 

each  class  wounded  badly,  and  several  slightly,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  window-lights  shot  out  and  the  signs 
looking  like  sieves,  and  it  wasn't  a  favorable  time  for  a 
row,  either.  The  "  sailor  on  shore,"  after  a  four  years 
cruise,  has  some  little  excuse  for  going  on  a  spree,  his 
long  deprivation  from  drink  making  the  temptation 
irresistible,  but  a  soldier,  if  only  deprived  of  it  for  a 
few  days,  seems  to  feel  it  his  duty  to  "take  in  the 
town."  The  soldier's  life,  however,  is  in  all  its  aspects 
"  a  feast  or  a  famine  " — too  much  or  too  little  duty,  too 
much  or  too  little  food,  too  much  or  too  little  (?)  wh^e- 
key.  He  is  engaged  on  the  most  arduous  scouting  or 
fatigue  duty,  or  else  lying  about  the  barracks  or  camp 
in  complete  idleness  ;  is  hungry  and  dissatisfied  with 
army  rations,  has  no  money  to  eke  them  out,  or  else  has 
money  and  gormandizes  himself  on  unwholesome  sut- 
ler's stores  ;  is  unable  to  get  even  a  glass  of  stimulant 
when,  wet  and  cold,  it  would  do  him  good,  or  else  has 
a  canteen  full  of  bust-head,  and  makes  up  for  lost  time 
by  excess. 


254  FIVE    YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 


CHAPTER  XL. 


THE  BUGLER — ARMY  PUDDING — THE  PLAINS — THE 
LAST  MARCH — FORT  HAYS — "ALL  HOPE  ABANDON 
YE  WHO  ENTER  HERE  "  —  DISCHARGED  —  FORT 
RILEY' — THROUGH  THE  TERRITORY  BY  STAGE — 
BISHOP  MARVIN — THE  OLD-TIME  NIGGER  —  JACKS- 
BORO  ONCE  MORE. 

The  buglers  (trumpeters,  officially)  of  our  regiment 
at  this  time  were  nearly  all  boys  or  very  young  men, 
and  if  there  is  any  one  class  or  individual  whom  the 
old  soldier  looks  upon  as  his  natural  enemy  it  is  the 
bugler.  Xot  subject  to  any. duty  but  the  one  pertain- 
ing to  his  specialty — sounding  the  calls — being  a  boy 
and  full  of  mischief,  he  usually  spends  his  ample  leisure 
in  indulging  in  pranks  distasteful  to  the  veteran,  and 
delights  in  calling  down  on  his  head  the  harmless  wrath 
of  the  man  of  many  enlistment  stripes.  Many  of  them 
ill  my  time  were  still  mere  youths,  yet  had  served  all 
through  the  rebellion,  been  discharged  as  "  veterans," 
and  were  serving  out  enlistments  in  the  regular  ser- 
vice. We  had  one  boy  named  Jeremiah,  who  should 
have  been  called  Jonah,  so  unlucky  was  he  in  every 
circumstance  with  which  he  was  connected.  He  acci- 
dently  shot  a  comrade  while  out  hunting,  set  fire  to 
the  barracks  Avith  his  candle,  left  carelessly  burning  in 
a  draught,  and,  finally,  while  he  and  some  of  the  other 
buglers  were  playing  on  a  raft  in  the  creek,  near  Fort 


FIVE    YEARS    A    CAVALRYMAN.  2(),") 

B'charclsou,  with  an  old  goat  that  l)elonoed  to  the  camp, 
they  upset  tlie  thing-,  and  a  nice  little  fellow  (bugler) 
about  seventeen  years  old,  and  a  general  favorite,  was 
drowned.  Jim  DeForrest  once,  when  drunk,  and  when 
some  unusually  practical  joke  had  been  perpetrated  on 
him  by  "Jerry,"  went  solemnly  and  with  all  serious- 
ness to  the  commanding  oilicer  to  get  permission  to 
kill  Jeremiah,  stating  that  he  believed  it  to  be  best,  to 
save  the  boy  from  benig  hung  at  no  distant  period; 
giving  his  opinion  to  the  ofticer  confidentially  that  such 
fate  was  in  reserve  for  all  buglers,  since  the  good  old 
legulation  of  whipping  them  had  been  abolished. 

The  most  useful  man,  and  yet  the  most  abused  one, 
in  the  service  is  (or  was)  the  company  cook,  for  on  him 
depends  the  judicious  use  of  the  rations,  and  in  every 
troop  one  or  more  fellows  could  be  found  who  were 
excellent  cooks,  but  good  for  little  else.  One  such  was 
in  my  company,  a  Hollander,  and  for  nearly  four  years 
he  presided  over  our  soup  and  beans,  and  wonderful 
were  h's  resources  in  ])roduc*ng  new  and  unexpected 
results  in  our  bill  of  fare,  inventing  combinations  of 
the  limited  variety  at  his  commajid  that  added  greatly 
to  our  comfort.  After  awh'le  the  chronic  growlers 
would  make  his  life  a  burden  to  hhn,  and  he  ^v(  iild 
ask  to  be  relieved,  but  before  the  ten  days  had  expired 
all  hands  were  glad  enough  to  get  "  Old  Hall '' back 
again  in  the  mess-room,  and  too  glad  to  submit  to  an 
assessment  of  a  few  cents  a  month  i)er  cai)ita  to  induce 
h'm  to  remain.  He  had  cooked  in  the  navy,  and  on 
high  days  and  holidays  he  would  produce  wonderful 
puddings  and  mysterious  sauces,  that  to  us.  at  least 
then,  seemed  worthy  of  Delmonico  ;  the  good  digest!  >n 
that  accompanies  the  soldier's  life  perhaps  being  the 
"  sauce  "  that  made  those  fearful  "  plum-duff's  ''  palatable 
and  rendered  them  harndess. 


236  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

The  band  members  were  another  class  of  the  "  non- 
combatants"  who  were  never  popular  with  the  men 
generally,  for  the  mass  of  the  soldiers  regard  clerks, 
musicians  and  extra  duty  men  of  all  kinds  as  in  a  cer- 
tain sense  shirking  or  getting  out  of  legitimate  duties, 
yet  these  classes  are  all  essential  to  the  makeup  of  an 
army  organization,  and  are  a  component  part  it  would 
not  be  possible  to  dispense  with. 

Friday,  June  2. — Part  of  our  command  having  been 
ordered  to  join  the  regimental  headquarters  at  Fort 
Hays,  a  mule  train  was  furnished  for  the  baggage,  the 
dismounted  men  and  company  property  were  shipped 
by  rail,  and  we  left  camp  for  our  destination,  passing 
through  the  village  of  Ellsworth,  and  marching  in  a 
I^.  I^.  W.  course,  leaving  the  railroad  on  our  right.  I 
had  not  yet  visited  this  "city" — every  collection  of 
box-houses,  large  or  small,  in  this  region  is  a  "city" — 
and  I  found  it  one  of  a  class  only  possible  at  such 
times  and  under  such  surroundings.  One  long  strag- 
gling street  built  up  on  both  sides  of  the  railroad,  the 
houses  all  of  one  style  of  architecture — one-story  with 
a  false  front,  and  the  majority  of  them  seemed  to  be 
saloons,  restaurants,  dance-halls  and  other  "  deadfalls  " 
of  an  equally  destructive  and  undesirable  kind,  and 
this  town  looked  exactly  like  all  the  others  of  that  day 
and  locality,  but  they  have  disappeared  now,  I  suppose, 
and  given  away  before  the  advancing  tide  of  immigra- 
tion that  has  taken  their  places. 

We  were  now  on  the  plains  in  good  earnest,  and  w  Id 
as  it  was  then,  i)oor  and  scanty  grass,  not  even  a  bush, 
I  could  readily  understand  why  it  had  been  termed  the 
"  Great  American  Desert "  by  geographers  of  former 
days.  Between  Fort  EUey  and  Fort  Hays,  something 
like  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles,  there  was  not  a  settler 


FIVE    YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  267 

or  a  settlement  at  this  time,  except  at  tlie  temporary 
towns  immediately  on  the  line  of  railroad,  and  this  did 
not  -Surprise  me  then,  for  I  conld  see  nothing  to  sup- 
port life.  The  limitless  plains  met  the  horizon  in  every 
direction ;  the  well-worn  trail,  beaten  as  hard  as  con- 
crete, and  shinino-  aiid  glistening  where  countless 
wagons  on  the  ''  overland  "  had  worn  it  like  a  turnpike ; 
an  occasional  buzzard  wheeling  far  overhead,  and  the 
bones  of  a  defunct  ox  now  and  then,  white  and  ghostly 
from  long  years  of  bleaching  in  wind  and  sun — this  was 
all  there  was  to  see,  and  I  recorded  it  in  my  diary  as 
the  most  God-forsaken  land  I  had  ever  looked  on.  It 
occurred  to  me  that  the  only  thing  th^is  ])art  of  Uncle 
Sam's  domain  was  fit  for  was  to  build  a  railroiid  throiiiih, 
and  then  get  on  the  first  train  and  get  out  of  it. 

The  first  day  we  marched  twenty-eight  miles,  camp- 
ing on  the  left  bank  of  the  Smoky,  the  train  reaching 
camp  close  on  our  heels,  and  demonstrating  the  fact 
that  mule  trains  are  the  only  kind  of  transportation 
suitable  for  a  mounted  command. 

Saturday,  June  3. — We  continued  our  march  in 
the  same  general  direction,  and  through  (or  rather  orer, 
for  you  cannot  be  said  to  go  through  these  i)lains,  as  it 
is  all  on  top)  the  same  kind  of  scenery  as  yesterdav, 
accomplishing  thirty  miles,  and  camping  on  the  right 
bank  of  Big  Creek  or  Big  Muddy,  a  tributary  of  the 
Smoky,  and  said  to  rise  two  hundred  or  more  miles 
away  in  the  Eockies. 

Venomous  snakes  seemed  numerous,  and  they  were 
welcome  to  occupy  this  region,  so  far  as  I  felt  just 
then.  Saw  and  chased  a  little  herd  of  buffalo  in  the 
afternoon,  but  they  eluded  our  hunters  and  esca])ed 
apparently  unhurt.  The  day  had  been  cloudless  and 
oppressively  hot,  but  about  sundown  it  was  noticed 
that  the  creek  on  which  we  were  camped  was  rising 


268  FIVE   YEAES    A    CAVALRYMAN. 

rapUllj,  and  at  ten  o'clock  that  n^-glit  it  was  swollen  out 
of  its  banks.  We  were  told  that  this  was  not  an 
unusual  occurrence  with  these  streams  which  headed 
in  the  mountains,  and  that  this  very  creek  a  year  before 
had  r'sen  one  night  without  wgrning  and  drowned  sev- 
eral men  of  the  Seventh  Cavalry  who  had  camped  near 
th's  place. 

Sunday,  June  4. — The  command  marched  in  good 
season,  stUl  keeping  a  N.  N.  W.  d^rect^on,  but  owing  to 
the  numerous  deep  gullies  and  ravines  by  which  the 
plain  was  intersected  we  were  compelled  to  make  a 
great  nuuiy  detours  to  avoid  them,  and  it  seemed  as  if 
this  day\s  march  would  never  come  to  an  end.  About 
three  oxlock  in  the  afternoon  the  flag  floating  over 
Fort  Hays  could  be  seen  above  the  horizon,  and  turn- 
ing the  head  of  the  column  thitherward  we  arrived  in 
cam])  at  Ave  o'clock  in  the  evening,  having  marched 
some  thirty-six  miles  this  day. 

On  my  srrival  at  the  camp  I  found  ma'l  awaiting  me 
from  Jackoboro,  which  gave  an  account  of  the  massacre 
of  Captain  Henry  Warren's  tra'n  hands  on  May  18tli, 
between  Belknap  and  Fort  E-chardson ;  also  of  the 
visit  of  General  Sherman  to  Jacksboro  on  a  tour  of 
inspection;  the  two  events  taken  in  connection  with 
each  other  led  to  the  policy  of  the  government  which 
happ'ly  culminated  in  forever  freeing  that  frontier  from 
the  incursions  of  hostile  Indians,  and  resulted  in  its 
speedily  flUing  up  with  settlers,  and  its  consequent 
abandonment  by  the  trooi)S  in  the  near  future. 

E'ght  companies  of  our  regiment  were  encamped  at 
th"a  place,  which  had  })een  for  years  a  sum  ner  cavalry 
camp,  Fort  Hays,  about  two  miles  d^'stant,  be'ng  gar- 
r'soned  by  infantry  at  this  time,  commanded  by  General 
Hazeu,  afterwards  chief  signal  oflicer  of  the  army. 
The  town  of  Hays  City,  a  half  mile   distant  from  the 


FIVE    YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  260 

fort,  consisted  of  a  loiij>-,  strag'j>lin^-  street,  throu«>-}i 
which  the  Kansas  PaciHc  road  ran,  and  was  one  of  the 
lovely  i)laces  heretofore  spoken  of  as  i)eciiliar  to  this 
time  and  region.  The  majority  of  the  houses  were 
saloons,  dance-houses  and  still  more  disreputable  places, 
interspersed  with  an  occasional  restaurant  or  general 
store,  and  my  recollection  now  is,  that  after  a  nearly 
four  months  sojourn  in  the  vicinity,  I  came  to  the  con- 
clusion that  there  were  not  as  many  good  people  there 
as  were  in  Sodom  when  the  angel  of  the  Lord  took  the 
census  of  that  place  some  years  since. 

Old  "Tom  Drum  "was  one  of  the  characters  and 
kept  about  the  most  respectable  place — and  his  was 
pretty  tough — but  some  of  the  others  that  I  recall  were 
fearful  dens,  and  make  the  worst  places  of  Jacksboro 
in  its  palmj^  days  decent  by  comparison. 

The  demoralization  among  the  men  during  our  stay 
here  was  very  great,  and  the  mills  of  the  field  and 
garrison  courts  ground  both  very  fine  and  fast,  and 
the  majority  of  the  boys  divided  their  pay  between  the 
seductions  of  the  town  and  the  ''blinds"  imposed  on 
them  for  their  delinquencies. 

The  country  was  barren  and  very  uninteresting,  and 
herds  of  buffalo  often  came  to  within  a  mile  or  two  of 
our  camp.  One  Sunday  an  old  bull  wandered  into  its 
very  midst  and  was  killed  by  the  guards. 

Scouting  parties  were  sent  out  from  time  to  time 
to  watch  predatory  i)arties  of  Indians  who  came  in 
from  Southern  Nebraska,  and  some  little  drilling  was 
done  during  the  summer,  but  little  worthy  of  recording; 
and,  in  fact,  my  rapidly  approaching  "  expiration  of 
service  "  formed  the  chief  subject  of  my  meditations. 

All  things  have  an  end,  and  one  fine  October  morning 
I  received  my  discharge — heretofore  spoken  of  as  the 


270  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

^'buzzard  " — and  the  autographs  of  my  worthy  Gaptaia 
and  commanding  officer  looked  more  valuable  to  me 
just  then  than  would  the  signature  of  General  Spinner 
to  a  big  Treasury  warrant  have  done.  I  spent  a  day  or 
two  as  the  guest  of  my  Gaptain,  John  A.  Irwin,  and 
then  left  for  Texas,  via  Fort  Klley,  at  which  post  I 
stopped  for  a  day  to  see  the  boys  of  one  of  our  com- 
panies stationed  there.  This  seemed  a  handsome  and 
well-built  post,  and  a  monument  on  the  parade  ground 
indicated  it  as  being  the  geographical  centre  of  the 
continent  on  that  parallel  of  latitude.  The  following 
day  I  took  the  cars  of  the  Missouri,  Kansas  and  Texas 
road,  reaching  Fort  Gibson,  on  the  Arkansas  river,  the 
same  night  in  a  pouring  rain,  and  at  this  time  the  ter- 
minus, no  road  being  extended  into  the  Territory  from 
any  direction.  From  this  point  the  El  Paso  Stage 
Company  ran  its  coaches  to  Texas,  and  its  lines  pene- 
trated the  State  in  every  direction,  Sherman  being  the 
headquarters  in  Texas,  from  which  toAvn  they  diverged 
into  the  interior. 

Sunday  morning  our  stage  left  "  G-ibson  Station,' ' 
and  our  trip  to  Sherman,  which  should  have  been  made 
in  forty-eight  hours,  occupied  more  tlian  twice  that 
time,  owing  to  the  ferryboats  on  all  the  streams — of 
which  there  were  a  great  many — having  been  washed 
away  or  damaged  by  recent  floods. 

All  along  our  route  we  could  see  the  camps  of  the 
railroad  builders,  who  were  pushing  the  road  along  at 
the  rate  of  about  a  mile  a  day,  and  in  the  near  future 
were  to  bind  Texas  to  the  balance  of  the  country  with 
bands  of  iron,  and  to  complete  a  through  route  to  the 
Oulf. 

Among  the  passengers  on  our  stage  was  the  distin- 
guished Bishop  Marvin,  who  was  on  his  way  to  Texas 
in  the  discharge  of  his  episcopal  duties,  which  embraced 


FIVE  YEARS  A   CAVALRYMAN.  271 

that  State  as  well,  I  believe,  as  Arkansas  and  Louisiana. 
I  had  often  heard  of  this  eminent  man,  and  think,  on 
looking  back  on  this  long  trip,  that  it  was  one  of  the 
pleasantest  I  ever  spent,  made  so  mostly  by  the  genial 
humor  of  the  B^^shop. 

Among  other  delays,  we  sat  in  the  stage  all  of  one 
n'ght  on  the  bank  of  the  Canadian  waiting  for  daylight 
and  the  ferryboat,  and  as  sleep  was  impossible  in  the 
crowded  vehicle,  we  talked  to  keep  ourselves  from 
falling  into  an  uneasy  dose.  At  this  time  (1871)  it  was 
scarcely  possible  for  half  a  dozen  ordinarily  intelligent 
people  to  get  into  conversation  without  Darwin  and 
his  then  recently  published  theories  becoming  the  topic, 
and  it  was  so  in  this  case. 

The  Bishop  was  called  on  for  his  views,  and  said  he 
would  tell  us  what  an  old  darkey  preacher  years  before 
had  said  in  that  connection  : 

"  Years  ago,  back  in  the  woods  of  Mississippi,  long 
before  Darwin  had  been  heard  of,  I  went  one  day  to 
mill,  and  while  waiting  for  my  'turn  ^  talked  with  '  Uncle 
Jake,'  an  old  darkey  preacher,  on  the  prevailing  topic 
in  the  neighborhood  just  then — a  menagerie  which  had 
recently  visited  the  country.  Said  I  to  Uncle  Jake, 
*  What  did  you  think  of  that  big  old  monkey  they  had 
at  the  show?'  Looking  very  serious,  and  speaking  in 
a  low  and  deliberate  tone,  he  answered  :  '  Massa  Marvin, 
'fore  God,  I  b'lieve  dat  was  de  'riginal,  way-back,  old- 
time  nagger!'"  And  said  the  Bishop,  ''I  think  the  old 
fellow  and  Darwin  were  in  close  accord." 

No  modern  invention  of  vestibule  cars  or  other  im- 
proved appliances  of  travel  can  equal  for  sociability 
and  pleasure  the  old  stage  coach  when  time  was  of  no 
particular  importance,  and  where  the  passengers  were 
congenial  and  thrown  together  long  enough  to  strike 
up  a  sort  of  an  acquaintance,  such  as  we  all  did  on  this 


272  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

tri})  to  Texas.  Aniviiio'  in  Sherman  on  Friday,  I 
secured  a  seat  for  Jacksboro,  and  the  next  day  started 
in  a  most  uncomfortable  two-seated  "  jerkey,"  not  reach- 
ing-  Jacksboro  until  late  the  day  after,  the  driver  having 
lost  his  way  between  Gainesville  and  Decatur,  owing 
to  the  darkness  and  a  bottle  of  whiskey,  and  we  sat  on 
the  open  prairie  all  night  and  nearly  froze. 

Jacksboro  had  altered  but  very  little  in  the  six 
months  since  I  had  left  it,  but  events,  which  will  be 
recorded  in  the  remaining  chapters,  had  occurred  dur- 
ing my  absence  that  led  in  a  short  time  to  a  complete 
solution  of  the  vexed  Indian  question,  and  which  I 
gathered  and  made  memoranda  of  while  they  were  still 
fresh  in  the  minds  of  those  who  took  part  in  them. 


FIVE    YEARS    A    CAVALRYMAN.  273 


CHAPTER  XLI. 


-GENERAL  SHP^RMAN'S  VISIT  —  THE  MASSACRE  OF 
warren's  TEAMSTERS^ — ARREST  OF  SATANTA,  BIGr 
TREE  AND  OTHER  CHIEFS  AT  FORT  SILL — KICKING 
BIRD  ''HEAP  GOOD  INDIAN  '' — POETIC  DESCRIPTION 
OF   SATANTA. 

During  tlie  early  montlis  of  1871  the  hicui'sioiis  of 
liostile  Iiulimis  liad  been  unusually  frequent,  and  were 
luarked  by  a  degree  of  ferocity  unknown  during  recent 
years,  and  so  loud  and  uroent  were  the  appeals  made 
by  the  citizens  to  the  authorities  at  Washington  that 
Oeneral  W.  T.  Sliernian,  tlien  commanding  the  army, 
determined  to  extend  a  tour  of  the  frontier  posts  which 
he  liad  in  contemplation,  so  as  to  embrace  Fort  Rich- 
ardson, Texas,  and  Fort  Sill,  Indian  Territory. 

On  the  evening  of  May  17th  General  Sherman,  ac- 
companied by  General  Randolph  B.  Marcy,  Inspector 
General  of  the  Army,  and  an  escort  of  seventeen  men 
of  the  Tenth  Infantry,  arrived  at  Fort  Richardson  from 
Fort  Belknap,  having  left  Saii  Antonio  May  lid,  and 
visited  the  entire  chain  of  ])Osts  tliat  at  that  time 
marked  the  liujit  of  the  settlements  in  Western  Texas. 
The  veteran  Marcy,  one  of  the  most  accomplished  sol- 
diers of  the  old  army,  as  stated,  accompanied  him,  and 
he  took  occasion  to  remark  in  his  journal  as  he  rode 
from  Belknap  to  Jacksboro  : 


274  FIVE    YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

"This  rich  and  beautiful  section  of  country  does  not 
contain  to-day  [May  17,  1871]  as  many  white  people  as 
it  did  when  I  was  stationed  here  eighteen  years  ago,, 
and  if  the  Indian  marauders  are  not  punished,  the 
whole  country  seems  to  be  in  a  fair  way  of  becoming 
depopulated." 

On  May  18th,  the  day  after  General  Sherman  arrived 
at  Fort  Richardson,  the  mule-train  of  Captain  Henry 
Warren,  a  government  contractor  at  Fort  Griffin,  was 
attacked  by  a  band  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  Indians 
while  en  route  from  Jacksboro  to  the  latter  place,  near 
Flat  Top  Mountain,  about  half  way  between  Jacksboro 
and  Belknap,  and  the  wagonmaster  and  six  teamsters 
killed,  one  other  teamster  severely  wounded,  and  the 
two  remaining  teamsters  escaping.* 

The  very  spot  on  which  the  massacre  took  place  had 
been  passed  over  by  the  General  and  his  party  the  day 
previous,  and  had  the  Indians  attacked  them,  so  over- 
whelming was  their  number,  he  and  those  who  accom- 
panied him  might  have  met  a  similar  fate  to  those  with 
the  wagon  train. 

The  trip  of  General  Sherman's  was  of  momentous 
importance  to  this  whole  region  of  country,  and  it  is 
fa'r  to  presume,  had  it  not  occurred.  Jack  county  and 
other  counties  now  thickly  settled  with  a  prosperous 
and  happy  people  would  not  contain  a  tithe  of  their 
present  population.  Immediately  on  receipt  of  the 
n?ws  of  the  massacre,  the  General  sent  "General 
Mackenzie  with    one  hundred  and  fifty    cavalry   and 

*The  names  of  the  unfortunate  men,  as  near  as  I  can  learn,  were:  Nathan 
Long,  wagonmaster;  John  Mullins,  James  EUiott,  Samuel  Elliott,  M.  J. 
Baxter,  Jesse  Bowman  and  James  Williams.  Thomas  Brazale,  who  was 
wounded,  escaped,  and  was  an  important  witness  at  the  trial  of  Satauta  and 
Big  Tree.  Captain  Warren  caused  a  wooden  monument,  nicely  painted,  to^ 
be  erected  on  the  spot  of  the  massacre,  and  for  years  it  stood  a  ghastly  land- 
mark on  the  prairie,  but  it  has  long  since  succumbed  to  the  elements,  not  a. 
vestige  now  remaining. 


FIVE    YEARS    A    CAVALRYMAN.  tiiiy 

thirty  days  rations  on  pack  animals,  to  pursue  and 
chastise  tlie  marauders." 

On  the  19tli,  the  last  day  of  General  Sherman's  stay 
at  Fort  Richardson,  a  delegation  of  citizens  from  Jacks- 
boro  proceeded  to  visit  him,  and  lay  before  him  the 
exact  condition  of  affairs  growing-  out  of  the  policy  of 
allowing  the  Indians  to  leave  their  reservation,  and 
assured  him  that  unless  decisive  action  was  taken,  and 
these  raids  stopi)ed,  Northwest  Texas  would  soon  be- 
come depopulated,  and  a  delightful  and  improving 
country  allowed  to  lapse  into  barbarism.* 

The  General  listened  attentively  to  their  representa- 
tions, and  seemed  to  grasp  the  situation,  stating  that 
he  felt  keenly  the  injustice  of  the  Indian  policy  of  the 
government,  and  promised  to  do  all  in  his  i)Ower  to 
remedy  the  existing  conditions.  The  deputation  ob- 
tained permission  to  go  to  Fort  Sill  and  recover  stock 
stolen  from  them  by  the  Indians,  in  case  they  could 
identify,  satisfactorily,  the  animals.  During  this  day 
(the  19th)  General  Mackenzie  verified  the  report  of  the 
massacre  of  the  teamsters  of  Captain  Warren's  train  ; 
their  bodies  were  found  to  be  horribly  mutilated,  and 
one  of  the  Elliott  brothers  (Samuel)  burned  to  a  cinder, 
the  savages  having  chained  the  poor  fellow  between 
the  wheels  of  a  wagon  and  built  a  fire  under  him. 

On  the  20th  day  of  May  General  Sherman  and  his 
escort  left  for  Fort  Sill,  via  Victoria  Peak  and  Red 
Kiver  Station,  reaching  there  on  the  afternoon  of 
the  23d. 

Lowrie  Tatem,  the  agent  of  the  Kiowas  and  Co- 
manches,  an  estimable  Quaker  gentleman,  called  on 
General  Sherman  soon  after  his  arrival, audit  was  very 

♦Among  the  gentlemen  who  visited  the  General  were  W.  W.  Duke,  R.J. 
Winders,  Peter  Hart,  J.  R.  Kobiuson,  W.  M.  McConiiell  and  "General" 
H.  H.  Gaines. 


27G  FIVE    YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

evident  that  he  conscientiously  believed  the  exi)eri- 
ment  then  bein«>'  tried  with  those  Indians  was  a  failure 
in  a  great  measure. 

During  the  UJrth  and  25th  General  Sherman  remained 
at  Fort  Sill  inspecting  the  buildings  and  visiting  the 
signal  station  on  one  of  tJie  most  eleva.ted  easterly 
peaks  of  the  Wichita  Mountains,  wliich  attain  a  very 
considerable  altitude  in  this  vicinity. 

On  the  afternoon  of  May  27th,  about  four  o'clock, 
several  Kiowa  chiefs,  among  them  Satanta,  Satank, 
Kicking  Bird  and  Lone  Wolf,  came  to  the  agency  to 
draw  their  rations.*  In  a  talk  with  the  agent,  Satanta 
boasted  that  he,  "  with  one  liundred  warriors,  had  made 
the  recent  attack  upon  the  train;''  that  he  (or  they) 
had  killed  seven  teamsters  and  driven  off  forty-one 
mules.  Said  he :  "  If  any  other  Indian  said  he  did  it,  he 
was  a  liar;  he  was  the  chief  who  commanded."  He 
pointed  out  Satank  and  Big  (or  Tall)  Tree  and  also  an- 
other chief  as  having  taken  i)art  in  the  action.  The 
interpreter  having  conveyed  Satan ta's  words  to  the 
agent,  the  latter  at  once  rei)orted  the  facts  to  General 
Sherman,  and  requested  him  to  arrest  the  Indians  con- 
cerned, whereupon  the  General  sent  for  them,  and 
Satanta  acknowledged  what  he  had  stated  to  the  agent, 
and  the  General  immediately  informed  him  he  should 
confine  them  and  send  them  to  Terras  for  trial  hij  the  civil 
authorities.  Satanta  now  began  to  see  the  serious 
trouble  he  was  in,  and  to  i)rotest  that  he  "  did  not  per- 
sonally kill  anybody  in  the  fight,  nor  did  he  even  blow 
his  bugle  ;t  that  his  young  men  wanted  to  have  a  little 
fight  and  to  take  a  few  white   scalps,  and  he  went  with 


*MS.  copyof  Joiiriial  of  the  trip  kept  by  Gt'ucral   R.  IJ.  Marcy  on  his 
tour  of  inspection ,  April ,  May  anti  June,  ISTl . 

tHe  had  an  ordinary  army  trumpet  duriiij?  this  inlcrvirw   struiij,'  around 
his  body . 


FIVE    YEARS    A    (CAVALRYMAN.  211 

ihcwx  merely  to  show  tlieni  liow  to  make  war."  He 
added,  tJiat  awhile  before  thin  tl»e  wJiites  had  kdled 
tliree  of  his  people  and  wounded  four  more,  aud  he 
tiiou<>ht  lie  was  now  8(]uare  and  ready  to  quit,  (ieneral 
Sherman  told  Irm  it  was  \  eiy  cowardly  for  a  hundred 
warr'ors  to  attack  twehe  j)oor  teamsters,  and  that  he 
should  send  the  three  Indians  i!)i[)lieated  to  Texas. 
Seeing"  no  escape,  Satanta,  remarked  that  rather  than 
be  sent  to  Texas,  lie  preferred  behig  sliot  on  the  si)ot. 
Kicking-  llird,  one  of  the  most  influential  chiefs  of  his 
tribe,  addressed  the  General,  and  protested  his  having 
done  all  in  h's  power  to  prevent  the  young  warriors 
from  leaving  the  reservation,  and  interceded  for  his 
friends,  but  tlie  General,  wh'le  informing  him  that  he 
was  aware  of  liis  goo<l  intiuence,  tirmly  told  him  that 
the  arrested  Indians  must  be  sent  to  Texas. 

Th's  now  historic  chief,  Satanta,  is  described  by 
W.  E.  Webb,  in  hi,;  Western  sketches, "  Buffalo  Land," 
^'as  the  very  embodiment  of  treachery,  ferocity  and 
bravado.  Phrenologically  con)Sidered,  h^s  head  must 
have  been  a  cranial  marvel,  and  the  bumi)S  on  it  mai)- 
ping  out  the  kingdom  of  evil,  a  sort  of  Eocky  Mountain 
chain  towering  over  the  more  peaceful  valleys  around. 
Viewed  from  the  towering  peaks  of  combativenesr;  and 
acquisitiveness,  the  territory  of  his  past  would  reveal 
to  the  phrenologist  an  untold  number  of  government 
mules  fenced  in  by  sutlers'  stores,  while  bending  over 
the  bloody  trail,  leading  back  almost  to  his  bark  cradle, 
would  be  the  shades  of  many  mothers  and  wives, 
searching  among  the  wrecks  of  enrgrant  trains  for 
flesh  of  their  flesh  and  l)one  of  the'r  bone.  Satanta 
was  long  a  name  on  the  plains  to  hate  and  abhor ;  an 
abject  beggar  in  the  cam|)s  of  the  pale-face,  a  demon 
on  the  trail."  All  of  which  ])oetic  descr*i)tion  means 
that  said  Satanta  was  a  typical  Indian,  and  consequently 


278  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

a  bad  one.  The  truth  is,  however,  that  neither  Satanta 
nor  Big-  Tree  were  either  exceptionally  bad  or  unusnally 
distinguished  above  thea*  fellows ;  in  fact,  they  were 
not  very  prominent  as  chiefs  in  their  tribe,  but  as  they 
happened  to  be  caught  in  the  perpetration  of  th^'s  cr  me 
during  the  opportune  visit  of  the  General  of  the  army, 
and  were  made  examples  of,  as  was  proper,  it  is  in 
order  to  depict  them  in  the  blackest  colors,  and  ascr  be 
to  them  all  the  cr'mes  in  the  (Indian)  calendar, and  all  the 
savage  traits  in  the  superlative  degree.  They  have  at 
any  rate  achieved  celebrity,  and  their  capture  and  trial 
will  go  down  into  history  as  one  of  the  causes  celebre. 


FIVE    YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  27^" 


CHAPTER  XLII. 


SATANTA  AND  BIG  TREE  CONVEYED  TO  JACKSBORO — 
DEATH  OF  SATANK  —  THE  FAMOUS  TRIAL  —  THE 
JURY — EXTRACT  PROM  LANHAM'S  GREAT  SPEECH — 
GUILTY  OF  MURDER  IN  THE  FIRST  DEGREE. 

"At  the  conclusion  of  Kicking  Bird's  harangue,  a 
detachment  of  about  twenty  soldiers  came  up  in  front 
of  the  piazza  where  we*  were  assembled,  at  which  the 
Indians  seemed  much  excited,  nearly  all  of  them  having 
eiiher  a  Colt's  revolver  or  a  Spencer  carbine,  or  both. 
Lone  Wolf,  a  chief,  now  rode  up  on  a  fine  horse,  dis- 
mounted, la'd  two  carbines  and  a  bow  and  quiver  of 
ar  ows  on  the  ground,  tied  his  horse  to  the  fence,  then 
throwing  his  blanket  from  his  shoulders  fastened  it 
around  his  waist,  picked  up  the  carbines  in  one  hand 
and  the  bow  and  arrows  in  the  other,  and  with  the  most 
deliberate  and  defiant  air  strode  up  to  the  piazza  ;  then 
giving  one  of  the  carbines  to  an  Indian  who  had  no 
arms,  and  the  bow  and  arrows  to  another,  who  at  once 
strung  the  bow  and  pulled  out  a  handful  of  arrows,  he 
seated  himself  and  cocked  his  carbine,  at  which  the 
soldiers  all  brought  their  carbines  to  an  '  aim  '  upon  the 
crowd,  whereupon  Satanta  and  some  other  Indians 
held  up  their  hands  and  cried:  'No!  No!  No!  Don't 
shoot ! '     The  soldiers  were  directed  not  to  fire,  but 


»MS.  copy  of  General  Sherman's  tonr. 


280  FIVE    YEAKS    A    CAVALRYMAN. 

just  at  this  iiioineut  we  lieard  shots  fired  outside  of  the 
fort,  which  resulted  from  the  fact  that  the  guard  had 
been  oi*dered  to  [)eriii]*t  no  Indians  to  leave  without 
further  instructions.  Some  Indians  in  attempting  to 
go  out  liad  been  halted  by  the  sentinels,  when  one  of 
them  shot  an  arrow  wounding  one  of  the  sentinels; 
the  shot  was  returned  by  the  soldier,  killing  the  Indian 
as  he  was  riding  off.  AViien  the  excitement  had  sub- 
sided a  little,  the  General  told  the  Indians  that  they 
must  return  the  forty-one  mules,  which  Ki(ddng  Bird 
promised  to  do,  and  he  went  off  for  them,  but  on  his 
arrival  at  the  camp  he  discovered  that  the  squaws  had 
been  frightened  and  ran  off'  with  all  their  animals  except 
eight,  which  were  taken  possession  of.  All  the  Indians 
Avere  allowed  to  leave  except  the  j)risoners,  who  were 
])ut  in  irons  and  closely  guarded.         #         *         * 

''The  benevolent,  civilizing  i)eace  policy,  so  urgently 
advocated  by  a  class  of  i)eople  in  the  Eastern  States, 
has  received  a  long  and  fair  experimental  trial  with 
these  Indians.  They  have  been  regularly  fed  and  the 
kindest  treatment  extended  to  them  by  our  authorities, 
but  it  has  not  had  the  slightest  effect  upon  them. 
They  have  no  more  concei)tion  of  gratitude  than  so 
many  wolves,  and  they  have  not  only  acknowledged 
their  atrocities,  but  have  boasted  of  them.  There  was 
scarcely  a  day  during  our  tri])  through  the  frontier  set- 
tlements of  Texas  that  we  did  not  see  or  hear  of  some 
persons  who  had  suffered  from  Indan  raids,  and  there 
seemed  to  be  no  |)rospect  of  the'r  ceasing.  The  ques- 
tion has  resolved  itself  into  this,  that  the  border  settlers 
of  Texas  must  be  annihilated,  or  the  Indians  chastised 
and  disarmed." 

General  Sherman  and  his  party  remained  it  Fort  Sill 
until  May  30th,  when  he  resumed  his  tr^p,  visiting  and 
attending  a  convention  of  several  semi-civilized  Indian 


FIVE    YEARS   A    C^AVALIIYMAN.  281 

tribes  at  Ocknuilgee,  on  June  5th,  and  upon  invitation 
lie  addressed  the  assembly,  ^ivin^-  them  some  j^ood 
advice.  He  arrived  at  Fort  (libson  on  the  7th,  and 
on  the  9th  departed  for  Fort  Leavenworth,  reaching 
there  on  the  10th  instant. 

Thus  ended  a  trip,  momentous  in  its  im})ortance  to 
the  whole  region  through  which  he  passed,  and  it  is 
incontrovertible  that  his  prompt  action  saved  North- 
west Texas  from  the  raids  of  the  savage,  and  pushed 
forward  the  "  dial  hand  of  progress." 

As  stated  above,  Satanta,  Big  Tree  and  Satank  were 
arrested  on  May  27th ;  they  were  at  once  heavily  ironed 
(what  Colonel  Starr  used  to  call  "  shoeing  them  all 
around "),  and  on  the  31st  two  of  them  w  ere  safely 
lodged  iu  the  guard-house  of  Fort  Richardson  by 
Colonel  R.  S.  Mackenzie,  under  whose  escort,  with  a 
detachment  of  soldiers,  they  were  brought  from  Fort 
Sill.  One  day  while  on  the  trip  fi'om  there,  Satank 
loosed  his  heavy  iron  handcuffs  by  gnawing  and  strip- 
ping the  flesh  to  the  bone.  With  the  swiftness  and 
ferocity  of  a  tiger  he  seized  a  carbine,  and,  si)ringing 
from  the  wagon,  attempted  to  shoot  one  of  the  soldiers, 
although  he  must  have  known  the  consequence,  but 
preferred  death  in  any  form  to  taking  the  chances  of 
Texas  justice.  A  soldier  at  once  sent  a  "  calibre  fifty- 
six"  Spencer  ball  throug'h  him,  and  he  fell  lifeless  to 
the  gTound.  This  incident  had  a  salutary  effect  on 
Satanta  and  Big  Tree,  and  they  were  exceedingly  docile 
during  the  balance  of  the  trij).  The  arrest  of  these 
Indians  and  their  approaching  trial  created  great  in- 
terest throughout  A^orthwest  Texas,  and  Judge  Charles 
Soward,  at  that  time  Judge  of  the  judicial  district  in 
which  Jacksboro  was  embraced,  as  soon  as  he  was  in- 
formed of  the  arrivalof  the  prisoners,  lixed  for  their 
trial  at  the  approaching  term  of  the  district  court. 


282  FIVE   YEARS   A   CAVALRYMAN. 

Upon  the  opening  of  the  July  term  of  the  court  the 
grand  jury,  of  which  S.  W.  Eastin  was  foreman, 
])romptly  indicted  the  two  distinguished  cut-thro;  t  ^, 
and  on  Wednesday,  July  5,  1871,  this  memorable  trial 
commenced  in  the  old  court-house  at  Jacksboro,  his 
Honor,  Charles  Soward,  on  the  bench.  The  prosecu- 
tion was  conducted  by  Hon.  S.  W.  T.  Lanham.  the  district 
attorney,  and  Thomas  Ball  and  Joe  Woolfork  appeared 
as  counsel  for  the  prisoners.  The  jury  before  whom 
they  were  tried  consisted  of  Thomas  Williams  (a  brother 
of  the  famous  "  Blue  Jeans  "  of  Indiana,  and  a  pioneer 
settler),  foreman ;  John  Cameron,  Evert  Johnson,  Jr., 
H.  B.  Verner,  Stanley  Cooper,  William  Hensley,  John 
H.  Brown,  Peter  Lynn,  Peter  Hart,  Daniel  C.  Brown, 
L.  P.  Bunch  and  James  Cooley.  The  principal  wit- 
nesses were  General  E.  S.  Mackenzie,  Lowrie  Tate  in 
and  Thomas  Brazale  (one  of  the  teamsters  who  escaped 
the  massacre).  At  the  conclusion  of  the  testimony  the 
attorneys  for  the  prisoners  made  every  effort  to  con. 
vince  the  jury  of  the  innocence  of  their  clients  (?),  after 
which  Mr.  Lanham  closed  with  a  powerful  address,  from 
which  we  can  only  give  brief  extracts: 

"  This  is  a  novel  and  important  trial,  and  has  perhaps 
no  precedent  in  the  history  of  American  criminal 
jurisprudence.  The  remarkable  character  of  the  pris- 
oners, who  are  leading  representatives  of  their  race  ; 
their  crude  and  barbarous  appearance,  the  gravity  of 
the  charge,  the  number  of  the  victims,  the  horrid 
brutality  and  inhuman  butchery  inflicted  u{)on  the 
bodies  of  the  dead,  the  dreadful  and  terrific  ^^ipectacle 
of  seven  men  who  were  husbands,  fathers,  brothers, 
sons  and  lovers  on  the  morning  of  the  dark  and  bloody 
day  of  this  atrocious  deed,  and  rose  from  their  rude 
tents,  bright  with  hope,  in  prime  and  pride  of  man- 
hood, found  at  a  later  hour  beyond  recognition,  in  every 


FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  283 

condition  of  horrid  disfiguration,  unutterable  mutilation 
and  death,  lying 

'Stark  and  stiff 
Under  the  hoofs  of  vaunting  enemies!' 

"This  vast  collection  of  our  border  people,  this  '  sea 
of  faces,'  including  distinguished  gentlemen,  civic  and 
military,  who  have  come  hither  to  witness  the  triumph 
of  law  and  justice  over  barbarism;  the  matron  and 
maiden,  the  gray-haired  sire  and  the  immature  lad  who 
have  been  attracted  to  this  tribunal  by  this  unusual 
occasion,  all  conspire  to  surround  this  case  with  thrill- 
ing and  extraordinary  interest ! 

"  Satanta,  the  veteran  council  chief  of  the  Kiowas, 
the  orator,  the  diplomat,  the  counsellor  of  his  tribe, 
the  pulse  of  his  race;  Big  Tree,  the  young  war  chief 
who  leads  in  the  thickest  of  the  fight,  and  follows  no 
one  in  the  chase,  the  warrior  athlete,  with  the  speed  of 
the  deer  and  the  eye  of  the  eagle,  are  before  this  bar 
in  the  charge  of  the  law !  So  they  would  be  described 
by  Indian  admirers  who  live  in  more  secure  and  favored 
lands  remote  from  the  frontier,  where  '  distance  lends 
enchantment'  to  the  imagination,  where  the  story  of 
Pocahontas  and  the  speech  of  Logan,  the  Mingo,  are 
read,  and  where  the  dread  sound  of  the  warwhoop  is 
not  heard.  We  who  see  them  to-day,  disrobed  of  all 
their  fancied  graces,  exposed  in  the  light  of  reality,  be- 
hold them  through  far  different  lenses !  We  recognize 
in  Satanta  the  arch-fiend  of  treachery  and  blood,  *  * 
the  artful  dealer  in  bravado  while  in  the  powwow,  and 
the  most  abject  coward  in  the  field,  as  well  as  the  cant- 
ing and  double-tongued  hypocrite  when  detected  and 
overcome !  In  Big  Tree  we  perceive  the  tiger-demon 
who  has  tasted  blood  and  loves  it  as  his  food,  who 
stops  at  no  crime  how  black  soever,  who  is  swift  at 
every  species  of  ferocity,  and  pities  not  at  any  sight  of 


284  FIVE   YEARS    A    OAVALRYMAN. 

a^ouy  or   death,  and  lias   no   feeling  of  8yin})atby   or 
remorse.       *       *       Mistaken  sympathy  for  these  vile 
creatures  has   kindled  the  flame  around  the  cabin  of 
the  p'oneer,  and   despoiled  him   of  his  hard  earninos, 
murdered  and  scalped  our  peo])le  and  carried  off  onr 
women  into  captivity  worse  than  death.       *       *       We 
have  cried  aloud  for  help,  we  have  begged  for  relief, 
deaf  ears  have  beeu  turned  to  our  cries,  and  the  story 
of  our  wrongs  has  been   discredited.     Had  it  not  been 
for  General  Sherman  and  his  inost  op])ortune  journey 
through  th's  section,  and  his  personal   observation  of 
this  d're  tragedy,  it  may  well  be  doubted  whether  tliese 
brutes  in  human  shape  would  ever  have  been  brought 
to  tr^al.      We  are  greatly  indebted  to  the  military  arm 
of  the  government  for  k'ndly  offices  and   co-oi)eration 
in  procuring  the  arrest  and  transference  of  the  defend- 
ants.    If  the  entire  management  of  the  Indian  (jues  ion 
were  subm'tted  to  that  gallant  and  distinguished  army 
officer  (General  Mackenzie)  who   graces  this  occasion 
w  th  his  dignified   presence,   our  frontier  would   sorn 
enjoy  immunity  from  these  marauders." 

The  evidence  against  the  prisoners  was  so  d'rect ; 
their  absence  from  the  reservation  for  thirty  days,  their 
return  with  the  captured  mules  and  other  property, 
the  boasting  of  Satanta  that  it  was  he^  Satan k  and  Big 
Tree  who  led  the  raid,  the  evidence  of  the  Sergeant 
who  identified  and  described  the  arrows  as  those  of  the 
Kiowas;  in  short,  the  same  amount  of  eviden/e  would 
have  convW'ted  white  men  had  they  been  chnr  ^ed  with 
similar  crimes,  and  after  a  typical  Indian  speech  by 
Satanta,  through  his  interpreter,  Jones,  the  case  went 
to  the  jury.  On  July  8th  Judge  Soward  delivered  his 
charge  to  the  jury,  minutely  detailing  the  facts  as 
adduced  at  the  trial,  and  after  a  brief  absence  they 


FIVE    YEARS    A    CAVALKYMAN.  2S5 

returned  ai)(l  rendered  their  Yerdi<^t  of  "  iimiMlcr  in  the 
tirst  degree."  The  prisoners  were  reninnded  to  the 
custody  of  the  Sheriff,  and  subsequently  sentenced  to 
be  linno-  on  September  1,  1871. 


286  FIVE   YEARS    A    CAVALRYMAN. 


CHAPTER  XLIII. 


SATANTA'S  speech — SENTENCE  COMMUTED — IN  THE 
PENITENTIARY — RELEASED  BY  GOVERNOR  DAVIS — 
SATANTA  REINCARCERATED  BY  GENERAL  SHERIDAN 
— MILITARY  DAYS  AT  AN  END — FORT  RICHARDSON 
ABANDONED — SETTLING  UP  THE  COUNTRY. 

The  most  dramatic  incident  connected  with  this  trial 
was  the  speech  of  Satanta,  made  at  its  conclusion,  and 
interpreted  by  Mr.  Jones,  a  remarkable  man  in  his  way, 
who  had  lived  among  the  Kiowas  and  Comanches  for 
many  years,  and  was  familiar  with  all  their  dialects. 
He  is  now  (1889)  still  at  Fort  Sill  and  is  invaluable  in 
his  capacity  of  interpreter. 

The  harangue  was  spoken  in  the  Comanche  tongue, 
that  being  the  dominant  vernacular  among  the  Indians 
on  the  plains.  The  chief  was  handcuffed  at  the  time 
of  his  speech,  which  was  delivered  semi-signal,  semi- 
oral,  so  to  speak.  Of  course  it  cannot  now  be  literally 
reproduced,  but  is  given  below  as  substantially  re- 
membered : 

"  I  cannot  speak  with  these  things  upon  my  wrists 
[holding  up  his  arms  to  show  the  iron  bracelets] ;  I  am 
a  squaw.  Has  anything  been  heard  from  the  Great 
Father?  I  have  never  been  so  near  the  Tehannas 
[Texans]  before.  I  look  around  me  and  see  your  braves, 
squaws  and  papooses,  and  I  have  said  in  my  heart  if  I 


FIVE    YE.\RS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  287 

ever  get  back  to  my  people  I  will  never  make  war  npon 
you.  I  have  always  been  the  friend  of  the  white  man, 
ever  since  I  was  so  high  [indicating  by  sign  the  height 
of  a  boy].  My  tribe  has  taunted  me  and  called  me  a 
squaw  because  I  have  been  the  friend  of  the  Tehannas. 
I  am  suffering  now  for  the  crimes  of  bad  Indians — of 
Satank  and  Lone  Wolf  and  Kicking  Bird  and  Big  Bow 
and  Fast  Bear  and  Eagle  Heart,  and  if  you  will  let  me 
go  I  will  kill  the  three  latter  with  my  own  hand.  I  did 
not  kill  the  Tehannas.  I  came  down  to  Pease  river  as 
a  big  medicine  man  to  doctor  the  wounds  of  the  braves. 
I  am  a  big  chief  among  my  people,  and  have  great  in- 
fluence among  the  warriors  of  my  tribe — ^they  know  my 
voice  and  will  hear  my  word.  If  you  will  let  me  go 
back  to  my  people  I  will  withdraw  my  warriors  from 
Tehanna.  I  will  take  them  all  across  Eed  river  and 
that  shall  be  the  line  between  as  and  the  pale-iaces. 
I  will  wash  out  the  spots  of  blood  and  make  it  a  white 
land,  and  there  shall  be  peace,  and  the  Tehannas  may 
plow  and  drive  their  oxen  to  the  river;  but  if  you  kill 
me  it  will  be  a  spark  on  the  prairie — make  big  fire — 
burn  heap ! " 

On  the  10th  of  July,  immediately  after  the  adjourn- 
ment of  the  court  at  Jacksboro,  Judge  Soward  ad- 
dressed a  lenglhy  communication  to  Edmund  J.  Davis, 
then  Governor  of  Texas,  in  which  he  sets  forth  many 
reasons  why  it  seemed  politic  to  commute  the  sen- 
tences of  these  Indians  to  imprisonment  for  life,  and 
urging  upon  the  Governor  that  not  only  would  impris- 
onment be  a  gTcater  punishment  to  these  wild  natures 
than  death,  and  in  view  of  the  Quaker  agent  at  Fort 
Sill  having  committed  himself  to  the  policy  of  turning 
Indians  charged  with  depredation  over  to  the  Texas 
authorities,  it  seemed  best  to  commute  these  sentences. 


288  FIVE   YEAKS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

Besides  this,  Satauta  having  implicated  other  chiefs^ 
the  Judge  recoinineiided  that  a  commission  be  sent 
through  the  proper  military  channels  to  General  Mac- 
kenzie for  their  immediate  arrest. 

On  August  2, 1871,  Governor  Davis  issued  his  procla- 
mation as  follows: 

''THE  STATE  OF  TEXAS. 

"To  all  to  whom  these  presents  shaU  come: 

'^  WhcreaSy  At  the   July  term,   A.   D.  1871,  of   the 
District    Court    of   Jack  county,   in   said    State,    one 
*Satanta'  and  'Big  Tree,'   known  as   Indians    of  the 
Kiowa  tribe,  were  tried  and  convicted  on  a  charge  of 
murder  and  sentenced  therefor  to  suffer  the  penalty  of 
death  on  the  first  day  of  September,  A.  D.  1871,  and, 

^^  Whereas,  It  is  deemed  that  a  commutation  of  said 
sentence  to  imprisonment  for  life  will  be  more  likely  to 
operate  as  a  restraint  upon  others  of  the  tribe  to  which 
these  Indians  belong;  and, 

^^  Whereas y  The  killing  for  which  these  Indians  were 
sentenced  can  hardly  be  considered  as  a  just '  consid- 
eration of  the  animus  as  coming  within  the  technical 
crime  of  murder  under  the  statutes  of  the  State,  but 
rather  as  an  act  of  savage  warfare ; 

'^ Now,  therefore,  l^^Amxxw^  J.  Davis,  Governor  of 
Texas,  by  virtue  of  the  authority  vested  in  me  by  the 
constitution  and  laws  of  this  State,  do  hereby  commute 
the  sentences  of  Satanta  and  B'g  Tree  to  imi)rison- 
meiit  for  life,  at  hard  labor,  in  the  State  penitentiary, 
and  hereby  direct  the  Clerk  of  the  District  Court  of 
Jack  county  to  make  this  commutation  of  sentence  a 
matter  of  record  in  his  oftice." 

In  accordance  with  the  foregoing.  General  Eeynolds, 
then  commanding  the  Department  of  Texas  and  Louisi- 
ana (Par.  1  of  special  orders  Xo.  185,  Se]>tember 
12,  1871),   directed  the   commanding   officer   at   Fort 


FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN.  289 

Kichardsoii  to  send  the  prisoners  "  under  suitable 
guard  to  lluntsville,  Texas,  and  cause  them  to  be  de- 
livered to  the  warden  of  said  i)enitentiary,  taking-  a 
receipt  upon  their  delivery."  The  records  of  the  pen- 
itentiary show  that  these  two  famous  outlaws  were  duly 
received  on  November  12,  1871,  and  registered  as  Xo. 
2107  and  2108  resi)ectively. 

Immense  efforts  were  made  by  sentimentalists  in  the 
North  from  time  to  time  to  have  them  released,  sec- 
onded by  the  Sui)erintendent  of  Indian  Affairs,  but 
what  particular  influence  was  brought  to  bear  upon 
President  Grant  is  not  known;  however,  on  August  19, 
1873,  the  penitentiary  records  contain  this  entry :  "  Set 
at  liberty  by  Governor  Davis  this  day,  upon  recom- 
mendation of  the  President  of  the  United  States,  upon 
parole." 

Satanta  and  Big  Tree  were  accordingly  set  at  liberty 
and  escorted  from  Huntsville  back  to  Fort  Sill.  Kaid- 
ing  along  the  border  broke  out  anew,  and  on  October 
30,  1874,  Lieutenant  General  Sheridan,  from  a  camp  on 
the  North  Fork  of  the  Canadian  river,  directed  their 
"  arrest  and  return  to  the  Texas  penitentiary,"  which 
was  done,  and  on  November  8th  of  that  year  Satanta 
was  reincarcerated,  but  Big  Tree  was  never  subse- 
quently captured.  The  former  finally  ended  his  life  by 
jumping  or  throwing  himself  from  an  upper  window  of 
the  prison. 

The  fall  of  1873  was  marked,  I  believe,  by  the  last 
murder  committed  by  hostile  Indians  in  Jack  county, 
although  in  the  succeeding  year  the  State  Rangers  had 
a  fight  in  Lost  Valley  with  a  small  party. 

During  this  and  the  succeeding  year  large  jiarties  of 
surveyors  began  to  cover  all  of  Northwest  Texas, 
locating  the  enormous  grants  made  to  the  various  rail- 
roads that  were  projected  in  the  State,  and  which  in 

10* 


290  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

the  near  future  were  to  cover  its  "  magnificent  dis- 
tances "  with  a  network  of  iron  rails. 

During  this  time  when  these  vast  bodies  of  lands 
were  being  located,  Jacksboro  was  in  a  manner  revived 
by  the  presence  of  large  surveying  parties,  numbering 
in  some  instances  forty  or  fifty  men,  and  for  a  few  days 
at  a  time  would  brighten  up  with  a  temporary  or  remit- 
tent excitement  that  would  almost  remind  one  of  the 
''  halcyon  days  "  gone  by.  These  parties  would  "  outfit " 
here,  the  boys  would  spend  their  money  liberally  and 
occasionally  kill  each  other,  and  it  really  made  the  old- 
timer  rub  his  hands  with  glee,  and  cause  a  smile  to 
irradiate  his  countenance,  as  he  saw  again  in  his  dreams 
Jacksboro  putting  on  her  former  airs  and  graces  as  a 
red-hot  town. 

Here  was  the  headquarters  of  a  surveying  district 
which  embraced  about  all  of  Texas  north  and  west  of 
Jack  county,  attached  for  land  purposes,  and  the  books 
and  records  of  this  immense  territory  were  all  in 
Jacksboro,  and  her  county  surveyor,  Uncle  Billy  Ben- 
son, was  really 

'  'MonaTcli  of  aH  he  surveyed. ' ' 

But  alas !  this  was  the  fitful,  expiring  gleam  of  flush 
times,  which  flared  up  for  a  moment,  and  then  went 
out  quickly,  and  left  us  a  time  of  long  and  weary  wait- 
ing for  the  legitimate  settling  up  of  the  country,  which 
was  to  come  by  immigration  and  come  to  stay. 

Fast  following  on  the  heels  of  these  land  locators,  the 
wagons  of  the  emigrant  began  to  move  forward  toward 
the  "waste  places;"  safety  was  felt  at  last  outside  of 
the  shadow  of  the  military  posts,  which,  since  the  close 
of  the  war,  had  formed  the  only  7iuclei  for  settlements, 
and  the  garrisons  began  to  be  reduced  and  many  of 
the  less  important  posts  abandoned.  Fort  Eichardson 
continued  to  be  occupied  by  a  small  garrison  until  May, 


FIVE   YEAKS   A   CAVALRYMAN.  291 

1878,  when  the  fla«^  was  hauled  down  for  the  last  time 
the  last  wagon-load  of  the  immense  8upi)ly  of  stores 
rolled  out  for  forts  still  being  maintained  further  West, 
the  last  blue-coated  soldier  disappeared  on  the  horizon, 
the  buildings  reverted  to  the  owner  from  whom  they 
had  been  leased,  and  nothing  remained  at  Jacksboro 
but  a  tradition  of  the  red-hot  times  "when  the  soldiers 
were  here." 

The  post  cemetery,  with  its  silent  occupants,  whose 
last  " retreat "  had  sounded,  and  over  whom  "taps'' 
had  been  blown  for  the  last  time,  remained  for  a  few 
years  longer,  a  solemn  reminiscence  of  the  stirring- 
scenes  enacted  about  the  old  post,  but  in  1883  an  agent 
of  the  Quartermaster's  Department  removed  the  bodies 
to  the  National  Cemetery  at  San  Antonio,  and  military 
occupation  was  forever  ended  on  that  part  of  the 
Texas  frontier  which  I  was  familiar  with,  and  on  which, 
in  "twenty  odd  years,"  I  have  seen  such  surprising- 
changes  occur,  as  neither  the  lamp  of  Alladdin  nor  the 
magician's  wand  could  have  brought  about. 


292  FIVE   YEARS   A   CAVALRYMAN. 


CHAPTEE  XLIY. 


1865-1889 — THE  WASHINGTON  LAND  AND  COPPER  COM- 
PANY— THE  STATE  RANGERS — JOE  HORNER — THE 
CORPORATION — BILL  GILSON — AN  IRREPRESSIBLE 
CONFLICT. 

The  portion  of  the  Texas  frontier  whicli  has  been 
the  scene  of  most  of  the  experiences  I  have  attempted 
to  portray,  has  passed  through  several  distinct  eras  or 
epochs,  so  to  speak,  within  the  brief  period  dating  back 
to  the  close  of  the  war,  the  time  when  these  sketches 
were  begun. 

The  condition  of  society  in  1866  was  as  simple  and 
almost,  in  fact,  patriarchal,  as  it  always  is  in  a  com- 
paratively recently  settled  country  but  thinly  i)opulated, 
where  the  so-called  luxuries  of  life  were  virtually 
unknown,  and  the  sturdy  settler  thrown  on  his  own 
rec.ources  and  distant  from  any  market. 

The  vast  herds  of  cattle  and  flocks  of  sheep,  as  well 
as  the  great  numbers  of  the  razor-back  hog,  afforded 
an  abundant  sui)ply  of  meat,  and  the  cotton-])atch  and 
w^ool  supplied  good  home-spun  clothing.  Every  family 
had  its  cotton-cards  and  spinning-wheel  and  every  neigh- 
borhood a  loom,  and  they  easily  and  comfortably  got 
along  without  the  finer  fabrics  they  either  had  never 
known,  or  else  had  so  long  since  bidden  farewell  to  in 
the  old  home  in  ''the  States,"  that  their  absence  was 
not  missed. 


FIVE   YEARS   A   CAVALRYMAN.  293 

Pai)er  money  was  unknown  on  the  frontier,  ^old  and 
silver  and  ''barter''  beiniu'  the  niediiinis  of  exchange, 
and  when  one  had  a  debt  to  pay  he  filled  his  saddle 
pockets  with  the  bulky  Mexican  dollars  or  gold  pieces, 
mounted  his  pony  and  with  his  gun  across  his  saddle 
proceeded  to  hunt  uj)  his  creditor  and  settle  it  np. 

It  is  said  suits  for  debt  were  i)retty  muc^h  unknown 
in  these  Acadian  daj'S ;  the  native  honesty  of  the 
pioneer  prompted  him  to  pay  what  he  owed,  and,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  fa(;t  tliat  the  creditor  was  not  a])t  to 
indulge  in  the  slow  foolishness  of  law,  but  was  likely 
to  take  his  double-barreled  shot  gun  and  proceed  to 
the  prompt  collection  of  his  debts,  were  the  two  causes 
of  an  absence  of  litigation  that  the  old  settler  looks 
back  on  with  regret  in  these  degenerate  days. 

The  advent  of  fifteen  thousand  soldiers  and  camp 
followers  in  Texas  at  the  close  of  1865,  who  were  scat- 
tered from  the  Eed  river  to  the  Eio  Grande,  the  host 
of  contractors  and  sutlers  bringing  with  them  large. 
and  varied  stocks  of  goods,  containing  a  thousand 
articles  the  native  had  never  heard  of  and  consequently 
never  needed,  all  tended  to  create  wants  hitherto 
unknown,  and  all  this  changed  the  entire  modes  of 
life,  whether  or  not  for  the  better,  may  well  be  ques- 
tioned. Only  in  the  large  towns  in  the  interior  was  a 
P'ano  or  a  cewing  machine  a  familiar  sight,  and  a  carpet 
was  considered  so  superfluouaan  article  and  so  seldom 
seen  as  to  excite  remark.  But  all  this  was  to  change, 
and  a  new  era  to  begin  with  the  building  of  railroads 
which  soon  followed  the  close  of  the  war,  and  swept 
away  the  simi)licity  of  manners  and  of  living,  and  the 
straightforward  honesty  of  purpose  that  had  hereto- 
fore characterized  an  isolated  people,  revolutionizing 
the  entire  fabric  of  society  and  relegating  it  to  the 
past. 


294  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

Previous  to  the  war  some  attention  had  been  giveni 
to  the  deposits  of  copper  supposed  to  exist  along  the 
tributaries  of  the  Brazos  and  the  Wichita,  but  the  last 
prospecting  party  had  been  driven  back  by  Indians, 
and  for  several  years  no  effort  had  been  made  to  look 
them  up.  In  the  early  summer  of  1872  a  partj ,  made  up 
principally  in  Washington  and  Baltimore,  and  known 
as  the  "  Washington  and  Texas  Land  and  Copper  Com- 
pany," made  their  api)earance  at  Fort  Richardson, 
where  they  camped  for  some  weeks  previous  to  start- 
ing for  their  destination,  which  was  at  or  near  Kiowa 
Peak,  in  Haskell  county.  This  party  had  four  or  five 
good  wagons  and  teams,  several  ambulances  and  hacks, 
and,  including  the  mounted  men,  many  of  whom  were 
hired  at  Jacksboro,  made  a  total  of  perhaps  sixty  in 
all.  My  services  were  secured  to  accompanj^  them, 
and  had  it  not  been  that  my  sketch-book  was  stolen  by. 
some  of  the  crowd,  on  our  return  to  Jacksboro,  I  am 
sure  my  account  of  the  adventures  of  that  famous  party 
would  have  made  some  excellent  reading. 

The  personnel  of  some  of  the  bosses  of  the  partj^  were 
its  distinguishing  features,  and  never  have  I  seen  in 
one  small  crowd  so  many  characters.  The  real  head  of 
the  party  was  one  Mr.  Chandler,  from  Norfolk,  Virginia, 
aiud  a  member  of  Congress  in  ante  helium  days  Irom 
that  city ;  one  Kellogg,  an  Oriental  traveler,  and  author 
of  several  works  on  Egypt  and  the  Holy  Land ;  he 
was  an  artist  as  well,  and  made  excellent  water-color 
sketches  of  the  beautiful  scenery  through  which  we 
passed ;  Professor  Koessler,  sometime  State  Geologist 
of  Texas,  and  the  most  thorough  and  ideal  crank  of 
any  age;  one  Trout  man,  a  professional  photographer, 
who  accompanied  the  party  in  the  capacity  of  its 
"  official  "  artist ;  W.  M.  Beard  was  commissary,  a  fine 
young   fellow,    and   since   then  Speaker  of  the    New 


FIVE    YEARS    A    CAVALRYMAN.  295 

Jersey  Legislature,  and  who  has  achieved  einineiice  as 
a  pliysiciaii ;  and  Dr.  Loew,  chemist  to  the  exi)edition, 
a  droll  looking-  little  fellow,  al)oiit  four  feet  and  a  half 
in  height,  and  his   pony  yclept   Bisniarcli,  the   latter 
animal  reipiiring  the  whole  command  to  catch  it  each 
morning-.      Besides    these,   there    were   several   "dis- 
banded'*   army   orticers   who  had   been  "surplussed" 
ont  of  the  service  upon  the  reduction  and  consolidation 
of  the  army  a  year  or  two   i)reviou!:;ly,  notably  Sam 
Bobbins,  one  Plummer,  and  one  Wink]e])augh,  all  odd- 
ities  in   their   way,   except   Bobbins,  who  was  a  line 
fellow,  both  officer  and   gentleman,  and  in  regard  to 
whom  I  could  never  understand  his  being  mustered 
out.     Last,  but  not  least,  was  the  executive  boss  of  the 
crowd,  one  "  Colonel '-  ]\[cCarty,  whose  home,  I  think, 
was   Galveston,   but    who   had    been    j)icked    up    by 
Mr.  Chandler  in  ^Yashing•ton  upon  his  (McCarty's)  rec- 
ommendation   of  himself  as   being  familiar  with  this 
region,  which  proved  to  be  humbug,  as  he  soon  con- 
vinced us  that  he  had  never  been  here  in  his  life.     His 
claim  to  the  title  of  Colonel  was  based  on  his  having 
been  a  Sergeant  in  a  Confed.  regiment,  and  he  was  the 
heroic  and  altogether  unapproachable  liar  of  my  recol- 
lection.     He  told  me    confidentially  once   he    was   a 
nephew  of  "Barbara  Fritchie"  and  had  witnessed  the 
incident  on  which  Whittier  had  based  his  poem.     He 
was  a  handsome   fellow,  wore  his  hair  in  true  brigand 
style,  a  red  silk  sash  around  his  waist,  a  splendid  black 
horse,  and  silver-mounted  Winchester  completed  his 
"  outfit,"  and  a  bigger  fraud  never  was  seen.     Early  in 
June  we  rolled  out  across  West  Fork,  proceeded  to 
^'  meander  "  around  the  forks   of  the  Wichitas,  turned 
south  into  Belknap  (here  I  did  a  little  of  the  "pioneer 
act "  myself,  having  been  here  five  years  before),  then 
to  Fort  Griffin,  where  we  left  the  howitzer  gun  we  had 


296  FIVE   YEARS   A    CAVALRYMAN. 

with  US,  and  also  the  supply  of  trinkets  they  had 
brought  out  to  trade  to  the  Indians  !  We  proceeded 
to  Kiowa  Peak,  located  ten  or  twelve  sections  of  land, 
returned  to  Fort  Griffin  and  got  rid  of  our  Tonkawa 
guides,  and  reached  Jacksboro  early  in  September, 
where  the  party  was  disbanded  and  paid  off.  An 
account  of  this  trip,  such  as  I  could  have  produced 
had  my  notes  and  sketches  not  been  stolen,  would  have 
been  a  funny  experience,  such  as  seldom  falls  to 
the  lot  of  any  one  to  describe. 

During  1874  the  garrison  at  Fort  Richardson  was 
small,  most  of  the  troops  being  on  scouting  duty,  and 
about  this  time  State  troops — known  as  Eangers — had 
been  organized,  and  one  company  was  located  near 
Jacksboro.  These  Rangers  were  tolerable  Indian 
fighters,  but  most  of  their  time  was  occupied  in  ter- 
rorizing the  citizens  and  "  taking  in  the  town."  Shoot- 
ing scrapes  and  rows  between  citizens,  soldiers  and 
Eangers  in  this  year  (1874)  were  so  fi^equent  that  the 
long  suffering  citizens  by  their  votes  "incorporated" 
the  town,  L.  P.  Adam  son*  being  first  Mayor  and  one 
"  Bill "  Gilson  as  Marshal.  This  fellow  was  the  ideal 
City  Marshal,  an  institution  peculiar  to  the  South  and 
West,  and  not  known  elsewhere.  He  was  a  huge  man, 
cool,  brave,  quick  and  powerful,  and  possessing  every 
element  necessary  to  cope  with  the  "  toughs "  who 
sought  to  ''run  the  town."  Joe  Horner  and  his  fol- 
lowers were  the  typical  "bad  men,"  the  "  shooters  from 
Shooterville,"  of  that  day,  but  Gilson  took  them  all  in 
alike,  and  they  knew  their  man  well  enough  to  let  him 
alone. 

A  few  years  of  "  corporation  law  "  quieted  things 
down,  and  the    town  once    more    became    habitable, 

*He  was  succeeded  by  the  author,  he  by  Judge  T.  W.  Williams,  and  he 
by  Thomas  F.  West,  the  last  Mayor  of  Jacksboro. 


FIVE    YEARS    A    CAVALRYMAN.  297 

and  Gilson  went  out  West,  wliere  lie  was  killed  a  few 
years  afterward,  dying  (of  course)  in  his  boots. 

And  now  Jacksboro  is  passing  through  the  last  of 
the  three  eras  spoken  of.  The  simple  society  of  1805 
was  followed  by  ten  or  twelve  years  of  fever'sh  and 
transient  activity  during  the  time  of  the  occupation  by 
the  military,  in  all  of  which  time  society,  busine  .s  and 
the  agr  cultural  interests  of  the  people  were  domina+ed 
by  the  intluence  of  the  "post,"  directly  or  indirectly. 
With  the  liauling  down  of  the  garrison  flag  and  the 
abandonment  of  the  post  in  1878  the  third  and  present 
era  was  inaugurated,  and  the  i)eople,  no  longer  de])end- 
ent  on  the  soldiers  for  their  market,  have  settled  down 
once  more  into  the  quiet  of  a  slow  and  peaceful  as^ri- 
cultural  l"fe  :  the  stock  interests  of  the  country  having 
almost  ent/rely  disai)peared.  the  stockman  havhig 
sought  the  unoc(U])ied  range  of  the  distant  territories, 
where  his  rights  are  not  disturbed  by  the  farmer,  be- 
tween whom  and  the  cattleman  there  seems  to  be  an 
irrepressible  conflict  of  interests,  that  cannot  be  har- 
monized any  more  than  they  could  be  when  Abram 
and  Lot  sought  out  different  countries  for  themselves 
in  the  long  ago. 


\PPBNDIX. 


APPENDIX. 


THE  COWBOYS'  VERDICT.* 


BY  LIEUT.  KG.  CARTER. 


The  little  town  of  Jacksboro,  the  county  seat  of 
Jack  county,  Texas,  was  in  a  fever  of  excitement  over 
the  capture  of  Satanta,  the  war  chief  of  the  Kiowas. 
At  the  period  of  which  I  write  (1871)  he  was  the  scourge 
of  the  Western  Texas  border. 

Not  content  with  having  committed  the  bloody 
massacre  at  Salt  Creek  prairie,  he  had,  after  scalping 
and  mutilating  his  victims,  and  filling  their  bodies  with 
arrows,  lashed  one  poor  teamster  to  a  wagon-wheel 
and  burned  him  while  yet  alive.  A  few  days  later  he 
rode  into  Fort  Sill  at  the  head  of  his  war  party  and 
loudly  boasted  of  his  atrocious  deed.  He  was  arrested 
by  order  of  General  Sherman,  then  at  the  post,  double - 
ironed,  and  turned  over  as  a  prisoner  to  General  Mac- 
kenzie for  trial  in  Texas  for  murder. 

During  the  march  of  one  hundred  and  twenty-three 
miles   fi-om  the   Fort    Sill  reservation,    Satanta    was 

*By  ])eTmission  of  Perry  Mason  cSd  Co. ,  publishers  '  *  Youth's  Compauion ,  - ' 
Boston . 


302  APPENDIX. 

closely  guarded.     At  night,  jwckets  were  thrown  ou 
to  prevent  surprise,  as  it  was  suj>posed  that  the  Kiowas, 
upon  learning-  that  their  chief  had  been  taken  to  Texas, 
would  follow  and  attempt  a  rescue. 

Herd  guards  and  strong  sleeping  parties  were  posted, 
and  every  precaution  was  taken  to  prevent  a  stampede. 
The  wily  chief  was  spread  out  ujjon  the  ground,  a  peg 
driven  at  each  hand  and  foot,  and  he  was  then  bound 
securely  with  rawhide. 

In  the  Wichita  swamps,  where  the  mosquitos  swarm 
in  countless  thousands  and  to  the  size  of  a  N^ew  Jersey 
"greenhead,''  the  position  of  the  prisoner  can  be  at 
once  pictured,  even  to  the  dullest  imagination.  His 
grunts,  "  Ug-g-g-h-h-ho  ! "  and  long-drawn  exclamations 
were  heard  at  all  times  during  the  night,  notwithstand- 
ing prisoner  and  guard  slept  in  the  dense  smoke  from 
the  green-log  tires,  intended  to  be  a  protection  from 
these  bloodthirsty  tormentors. 

It  was  a  bright,  warm  day  in  June,  when  the  bronzed 
and  weather-stained  troopers  of  the  Fourth  Cavalry 

rode  into  Fort  E ,  with  the  prisoners  closely  guarded 

by  our  faithful  Tonkawa  trailers.     The  rest  of  the  gar- 
rison, with  the  band,  turned  out  to  greet  the  command. 

As  the  column  halted,  every  eye  was  upon  Satanta. 
His  reputation  was  well  known  to  every  man,  woman 
and  child,  not  only  here,  but  upon  the  Kansas  border. 
He  was  over  six  feet  in  his  moccasins,  and,  mounted 
upon  a  small  pony,  he  seemed  to  be  even  taller  than  he 
really  was. 

He  was  stark  naked  from  the  crown  of  his  head  to 
the  soles  of  his  feet,  except  that  he  wore  a  breech-clout 
and  a  pair  of  embroidered  moccasins.  Owing  to  the 
intense  heat,  he  had  allowed  his  blanket  to  slip  down 
to  his  saddle  and  about  his  loins. 


APPENDIX.  303 

His  coarse,  jet-black  hair,  now  thickly  powdered  with 
dust,  huug  tangled  abont  his  neck,  except  a  single 
scalplock,with  but  one  long  eagle  feather  to  adorn  it. 

His  immense  shoulders,  broad  back,  i)owerful  hips 
and  thighs,  contrasted  singularly  with  the  slight  forms 
of  the  Tonkawas  grouped  about  him.  The  muscles 
stood  out  on  his  gigantic  frame  like  knots,  and  his  form, 
proud  and  erect  in  the  saddle,  his  perfectly  immovable 
face  and  motionless  body,  gave  him  the  appearance  of 
polished  mahogany,  or,  perhaps,  a  bronze  equestrian 
statue,  sprinkled  with  dust. 

Nothing  but  his  intensely  black,  glittering  eyes  and 
a  slight  motion  of  the  lids  betokened  any  life  in  that 
carved  figure.  Every  feature  of  his  face  spoke  the 
disdain  with  which  he  regarded  the  curious  crowd  now 
gathered  about  headquarters  to  gaze  at  the  famous 
savage  chief. 

His  feet  were  lashed  with  a  rawhide  lariat  under  his 
pony's  belly,  his  hands  were  tied  together,  and,  dis- 
armed and  helpless,  lie  was  indeed  a  picture  of  fallen 
savage  greatness. 

In  accordance  with  General  Sherman's  instructions, 
the  day  for  Satanta's  trial  for  murder  arrived.  This 
trial  was  one  of  the  most  impressive,  yet  most  ludicrous, 
acts  of  legal  jurisdiction  ever  witnessed  by  the  hardy 
settlers  and  cowboys  of  Jack  county,  and  is  the  first 
instance,  I  believe,  when  an  Indian  chief  was  regularly 
indicted  and  tried  for  murder  by  a  legally  drawn  jury 
under  a  civil  process. 

The  town  was  swarming  with  men,  all  intent  upon 
seeing  justice  done  Texans,  the  State,  and  the  red  man. 

Under  a  strong  guard,  and  accompanied  by  the  Fort 
Sill  interpreter  and  the  counsel  who  had  been  assigned 
the  blanketed  chief,  with  clanking  chain,  walked  to  the 
little  log  court-house  in  the  square  of  Jacksboro.     A 


304  APPENDIX. 

/ 

jury  had  been  empaneled;  the  district  attorney  bustled 
and  flourished  around.  The  whole  country,  every  man 
armed  to  the  teeth,  tried  to  crowd  in. 

It  was  imi)08sible;  so  they  surrounded  the  court- 
house and  listened  breathlessly  through  the  open 
windows. 

Two  long,  dingy,  wooden  benches,  well  whittled  and 
worn,  held  the  jurors,  who  nervously  hitched  about  in 
their  seats,  and  uneasily  regarded  the  extreme  novelty 
of  their  situation. 

Inside  the  railing  sat  the  stolid  chief,  closely  wrapped. 
The  counsel  for  the  defense  opened,  and  in  a  spread- 
eagle  speech  referred  to  the  numerous  wrongs  that  the 
noble  red  man,  "my  brother,"  had  suffered,  wherein  he 
had  been  cheated  and  despoiled  of  his  lands,  driven 
westward,  westward,  until  it  seemed  as  though  there 
was  no  limit  to  the  greed  of  his  white  brothers. 

If  he  had  been  guilty  of  acts  of  violence  toward  the 
aggressive  race  which  was  driving  him  out,  that  was 
but  the  excusable  retaliation  which  merely  human  in- 
stinct— nay,  even  the  instinct  of  the  worm  that  turns — 
required  of  him. 

Warming  up  to  his  task,  he  now  threw  off  his  coat, 
as  it  was  an  intensely  hot  day,  and  discoursed  about 
the  times  of  the  Aztecs,  Cortez,  and  the  Montezumas, 
and  pictured  Guatamozin  lying  calmly  on  a  bed  of  coals^ 
as  npon  a  bed  of  roses.  Here  he  displayed  considera- 
ble historical  lore.  But  when  he  si>oke  of  the  majestic 
bird,  that  emblem  of  our  national  freedom,  and  urged 
that  the  great  chief  be  allowed  to  "  fly  away  as  free  and 
unhampered,"  I  turned  quickly  to  watch  the  jury. 

Every  cowboy  had  been  industriously  whittling  the 
old  bench  and  squirting  tobacco  juice  at  a  crack;  but 
the  words  of  the  counsel  having  been  interpreted  to 
the    chief,   whose   frequent    grunts   of    approval   and 


APPENDIX.  ;J05 

delight  at  vvliat  he  sui)i)Ose(l  iiieant  immediate  release 
now  soiiiifled  loudly  over  the  courtroom,  I  noted  au 
immediate  change. 

The  jury  were  all  h\  their  shirt-Rleeves.  Each  ha  1 
liis  old  "  shootin'-iron"  stra])i)ed  to  his  hip.  They  all 
hitched  their  '•  we-e-e])ons"  to  the  front,  immediately 
ceased  reducing  with  their  sheath  knives  the  i)roi)or- 
tions  of  the  jury  bench,  and  now  intently  watched  for 
further  deA'eloi)ments  and  more  oratory. 

The  district  attorney  was  really  (juite  an  able  little 
fellow,  and  he  grew  eloquent  over  the  enormity  of  the 
chiefs  crime,  as  he  rapidly  painted  the  cold-bloode;l 
massacre  and  the  cruel  murder  of  the  poor  white 
teamsters  upon  Salt  Creek  ])rairie. 

As  he  pictured  the  scene,  the  bloody  chief's  victims 
lying  cold  and  stark,  the  charred  reuiains  of  one  who 
had  been  slowly  roasted  alive  chained  to  the  wheel, 
every  brow  grew  black,  every  juryman  settled  himself 
in  his  seat,  gave  an  extra  hitch  to  the  "gun  "  on  his 
belt,  and  we  saw  the 'verdict  i)lainl3^  written  on  their 
faces,  from  the  foreman  to  the  very  last  man. 

The  afterpiece  of  the  other  counsel  for  defense  had 
no  effect.  He  took  off  coat,  vest,  collar  and  necktie, 
rolled  up  his  shirt-sleeves,  and  advancing  up  to  the 
foreman,  an  old,  gray-haired  frontiersman,  shook  his 
:fingers  at  him,  and  gesticulated  in  the  most  violent 
manner. 

It  was  of  no  avail.  The  doom  of  the  noble  red  man 
was  sealed. 

The  jury  was  briefly  charged.  It  retired  to  a  corner 
of  the  same  room.  A  few  minutes  of  hurried  consul- 
tation and  angry  head  shaking,  and  they  were  back 
again  in  their  seats. 

"Have  the  jury  agreed  upon  a  verdict  ?" 

"AYe  have!" 


306  APPENDIX.  / 

"  What  say  you,  Mr.  Foreman,  is  tliis  Indian  chief, 
Satanta,  guilty,  or  not  guilty,  of  murder  ? " 

With  a  most  startling  emphasis,  the  grizzly  old  fore- 
man shouted : 

^^  He  is  !   We  Jigger  him  giiiltg  ! " 

It  was  a.  unanimous  verdict. 

Satanta  was  sentenced  to  be  hanged,  but  the  pres- 
sure from  W^ashington  was  so  great  upon  Governor 
Davis,  of  Texas,  that  he  Avas  compelled  to  commute 
his  sentence  to  imprisonment  for  life. 

We  held  him  a  prisoner  at  Fort  E until  the  fol- 
lowing October,  when  he  was  transferred  to  the  State 
penitentiary  at  Huntsville,  where  a  few  years  later  he 
ended  his  life  by  throwing  himself  headlong  from  an 
upper  gallery  of  the  prison  upon  the  pavement  below. 


APPENDIX.  307 


CATTLE-THIEVING  IN  TEXAS.* 


BY  W     W     W. 


The  frontier  of  Texas  away  back  in  the  seventies 
was  but  little  else  than  a  vast  cattle  range,  and  although 
to  a  great  extent,  it  is  that  still,  yet  in  those  days  there 
was  literally  nothing  else  to  be  met  with  but  cattle, 
buffalo,  Indians;  also  game  of  every  kind  and  descrip- 
tion, a  veritable  hunter's  paradise.  Now  civilization 
following  close  in  the  wake  of  railways  has  cut  the 
country  up  into  farms,  killed  off  the  buffalo,  driven 
back  the  Indians,  and  the  raising  and  herding  of  cattle 
is  conducted  on  an  entirely  different  i)lan. 

The  game,  too,  has  become  scarce,  Avhere  once  there 
was  enough  apparently  to  supply  the  world. 

The  cattle  roaming  over  these  immense  plains,  so  far 
from  the  settlements,  and  knowing  but  little  of  the 
"  genus  homo,"  save  in  the  shape  of  Indians  with  their 
death-dealing  arrows  in  quest  of  meat,  become  so  wild 
that  to  kill  one  you  have  to  stalk  it  as  you  would  a 
deer.  In  fact,  it  is  much  more  difficult  to  get  a  shot  at 
a  wild  Texas  cow  than  it  would  be  at  the  most  cautious 
and  wary  old  buck.  To  kill  a  buffido  is  but  child's  play 
compared  with  it. 

*Bt  permission  of  Porrj-  JNIasoii  &  Co.,  publishers  "Youtli's  Companion, "' 
Boston . 


308  APPENDIX. 

/ 

No  wonder  then  that  this  country,  so  vast  and 
uni)rotected,  affording  grazing  for  thousands  of  cattle 
belonging  to  almost  as  many  owners,  should  attract  the 
attention  of  thieves,  who,  with  but  little  knowledge  of 
the  country,  could  soon  collect  a  herd  and  and  run  it 
off  in  a  few  days  either  into  Mexico  or  the  Indian  Ter- 
ritory, where  they  could  easily  dispose  of  it,  and  the 
owners  would  never  be  the  wiser. 

The  thieving  grew  to  such  enormous  proportions 
about  the  time  I  speak  of,  that  parties  of  citizens  were 
continually  organizing  for  the  purpose  of  scouting 
through  the  cattle-grazing  districts,  and  trying  to  c  ip- 
ture  the  rascals  who  were  rapitUy  ruining  the  whole 
cattle  business. 

A  party  of  this  description,  under  the  Sheriff  of  Jack 
county,  was  raised,  and  my  company  of  cavalry  was. 
detailed  to  accompany  the  Sheriff  as  a  posse,  and  to 
act  entirely  under  his  direction. 

We  started  one  fine  morning  with  but  little  idea 
where  we  were  to  go,  or  where  to  look  for  these 
sli])pery  gentlemen  who  had  such  a  liking  for  other 
people's  cows,  but  we  struck  out  for  the  extreme 
frontier,  and  when  near  the  Little  Wichita  river  we 
overhauled  a  Texas  "  rawhide  " — in  Florida  he  would 
be  called  a  "  cracker " — who  gave  us  the  news  that 
there  was  a  thieving  party  occupying  an  old  abandoned 
ranch  in  a  lonely  and  secluded  nook  on  the  Little 
Wichita. 

We  made  a  long  detour  so  as  to  come  on  them  fron 
the  front,  and  when  about  a  mile  from  the  ranch  we 
came  suddenly  on  a  party  all  equipped  for  a  big  cow 
hunt. 

There  were  ten  or  twelve  as  rusty  looking  cowboys 
as  one  would  care  to  meet.  They  were  fully  armed, 
had  a  wagon-load  of  provisions  and  a  number  of  led 


APPENDIX.  309 

ponies  for  reinomits.  They  iiiid  no  suspicion  of  the 
object  we  had  in  view,  but  8iipi)oaed,  seeing  the  com- 
pany of  cavalry,  that  we  were  on  an  ordinary  Indian 
scout. 

We  did  not  disabuse  their  minds  of  the  idea  until  we 
liad  learned  from  them  the  exact  location  of  their 
lieadcjuaiters — the  old  ranch.  As  soon  as  this  informa- 
tion was  given,  the  Sheriff  arrested  the  whole  crowd, 
much  to  their  disgust. 

Taking  with  me  about  a  dozen  troopers,  I  charged  in 
good  old  war-times  style  on  the  cattle-thieving  head- 
quarters and  captured  about  a  dozen  men  of  the  gang. 
Among  them  was  a  rather  dudish  chap  from  the  Xorth, 
a  ^*  guest,''  he  said,  who  had  nothing  to  do  with  the 
business ;  simply  "  roughing  it  a  little  on  the  frontier 
for  his  health.''  He  pretended  to  l)e  wholly  ignorant 
of  the  character  of  his  surroundings.  I  was  inclined 
to  believe  him,  for  he  had  a  decidedly  "tenderfoof 
appearance. 

We  made  a  camp  at  this  place ;  indeed,  there  was 
everything  to  make  the  camp  agreeable;  good  water, 
plenty  of  provisions,  somewhat  better  than  soldiers' 
fare,  which  the  Sheriff  did  not  hesitate  to  confiscate. 

We  were  certain  from  various  signs  that  there  was  a 
large  herd  of  stolen  cattle  somewhere  not  very  far  off, 
but  not  a  word  could  we  get  from  our  prisoners  by 
threats  or  promises,  and  it  was  only  after  a  little  ex- 
periment that  we  got  the  desired  information. 

The  Sheriff,  myself  and  tw^o  or  three  others  walked 
a  little  distance  away  fi'om  camp,  taking  with  us  one  of 
the  cow-thieves,  saying  we  wanted  to  talk  with  him.  I 
had  no  idta  of  the  Sheriff's  intent'on,  until  he  suddenly 
pulled  a  lariat  from  under  his  coat,  and  slipi)ing  a 
noose  over  the  man's  head  threw  the  other  end  over 
the  limb  of  a  tree,  and,  hauling  it  taut,  told  him  in  true 


310  APPENDIX. 

Texas  style  to  make  a  clean  breast  of  it,  or  up  he 
would  go. 

I  should  not  have  allowed  such  extreme  measures, 
however,  and  was  ])repared  to  interfere  if  necessary, 
but  I  was  saved  the  trouble,  for  the  fellow  turning-  a 
greenish  white,  and  taking  a  hurried  look  around  for 
help,  but  seeing  none,  said :  "  All  right,  get  me  a  horse, 
I  will  show  you  the  herd."  In  about  two  hours  a  tre- 
mendous lowing  and  bellowing  was  heard,  and  here 
came  the  Sheriff  and  his  men  with  a  herd  of  some 
fifteen  hundred  cattle  which  had  been  hidden  away 
among  the  hills  a  few  miles  off. 

Our  friend  of  the  lariat  experience,  once  having 
loosed  his  tongue,  could  not  tell  us  enough.  He 
showed  where  there  was  another  stolen  herd,  and  gave 
us  the  best  information  of  all,  that  the  chief  of  the 
whole  gang  had  gone  in  the  direction  of  Fort  Sill  after 
money  for  cattle  he  had  sold  to  his  confederates. 

Fort  Sill  was  seventy-five  miles  distant,  but  the 
Sheriff  and  I  took  ten  picked  men  and  started  away  at 
one  o'clock  in  the  morning  to  make  this  trip. 

I  shall  never  forget  that  ride.  We  trotted  twenty- 
five  miles  without  a  halt.  We  only  paused  once  in 
passing  a  lone  mesquite  tree  on  the  prairies  to  see 
what  uncanny  thing  it  was  suspended  from  a  limb,  and 
discovered  a  dead  Indian  hanging  there,  rather  a 
ghostly  sight  in  the  dim  moonlight,  swaying  to  and  fro 
in  the  i)assing  breeze.  Some  one  had  killed  him  the 
day  before  and  hung  him  upas  a  warning  to  any  friends 
of  In's  who  might  be  passing  that  way. 

Whaley's  ranch,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Big  Wichita  and 
Red  river,  was  at  the  end  of  the  first  twenty -five  miles, 
and  as  we  thundered  across  the  hard  and  sun-baked 
])rairie  in  the  dead  of  the  night,  the  noise  we  made 
could  be  heard  for  miles. 


APPENDIX.  311 

When  we  reached  the  raiieh  Whaley  was  fully  pre- 
pared for  Indians,  and  only  discovered  his  mistake 
when  we  got  close  enough  for  him  to  hear  the  jingle  of 
our  accoutrements. 

This  man  Whaley  deserves  more  than  a  passing- 
notice.  Here  he  was  living,  not  a  house  within  fifty 
miles  of  him,  cultivating  about  six  hundred  acres  of  the 
finest  land  in  the  world,  raising  grain  principally  for 
the  military  post  of  Fort  Sill,  fifty  miles  distant.  His 
only  protection  against  the  Indians  was  in  the  laborers 
kept  for  the  farm.  The  Indians  raided  him  regulaily 
every  moon,  and  drove  ofP  his  stock,  sometimes  killed 
his  men,  and  freciuently  gave  him  a  narrow  escape  with 
his  seal]).  But  there  he  stayed  for  years  and  made 
plenty  of  money. 

He  was  a  noble-looking  man,  six  feet  two  or  three, 
with  a  long,  blonde  beard,  and  an  eye  to  "  threaten  and 
command."  But  like  all  of  his  peculiar  class,  he  could 
not  keep  the  money  he  risked  his  life  to  make. 

After  his  crops  were  gathered  and  sold,  poor  Whaley 
sought  the  nearest  town,  where  he  managed  to  leave 
his  last  dollar,  then  back  to  his  lonely  home  to  plod  for 
another  year,  with  bloodthirsty  Indians  ever  on  the 
watch  to  kill  him,  or  to  rob  him  of  every  animal  he  had. 
Another  sowing  and  reaping,  another  wild  carouse,  and 
so  on  to  the  end  which  came  in  a  few  years,  but  with  all 
his  faults  he  was  brave,  generous  and  unselfish. 

After  resting  for  a  couple  of  hours  we  again  pushed 
on,  crossing  Red  river  at  a  most  treacherous  ford  full 
of  quicksands,  which  renders  it  dangerous  for  one  to 
pause  an  instant  while  crossing. 

The  water,  a  dirty  brick-red  color,  renders  it  impos- 
sible to  tell  the  depth.  Consequently  one  never  knows 
how  deep  he  may  suddenly  find  himself,  and  a  decided 
feeling  of  relief  is  experienced  on  reaching  in  safety 


312  APPENDIX. 

the  opposite  bank,     (xeiierally  in  eros3in«>-  tli's  streim 
with  wagons   men  are  posted  on    both    sides    of  the 
mules,  and  then  hurried  through  with  shouts  and  a  free 
use  of  bull-whacking  whips. 

We  were  still  a  good  fifty  miles  from  Fort  Sill,  where 
we  fully  expected  to  find  our  man.  We  urged  on  our 
tired  horses  as  fast  as  possible,  and  when  within  about 
fifteen  miles  of  the  jiost  we  were  forced  by  exhausted 
nature  to  halt,  dismount  and  feed  both  men  and  horses. 
But  we  had  hardly  finished  our  lunch  of  camp  biscuit 
and  salt  pork  when  away  over  the  j^rairie  against  the 
horizon  a  solitary  horseman  ai)peared,  coming  slowly 
along  the  trail  in  our  direction. 

He  had  evidently  seen  our  little  party,  and  was 
uncertain  as  to  its  character,  but  after  a  little,  as 
though  discovering  the  blue  uniforms,  he  came  on  more 
rapidly.  The  Sheriff'  from  the  first  was  quite  sure  that 
he  had  spotted  his  man,  and  asked  me  to  step  out  as 
he  came  along  and  arrest  him.  So  as  the  man  rode  up 
1  engaged  him  in  conversation  for  a  few  momenta,  and 
then  becoming  convinced  that  he  was  the  one  we  were 
after,  I  caught  his  bridle  rein  with  one  hand  and  his 
Winchester  with  the  other,  and  ordered  him  to  dis- 
mount. 

The  man  proved  to  be  the  chief  cow-thief,  and  had 
a  large  sum  of  money  on  his  person.  I  was  told  it  was 
as  much  as  ten  thousand  dollars  which  he  had  received 
for  stolen  cattle,  and  he  was  on  his  way  to  the  head- 
(jrarters  on  the  Little  Wichita  to  arrange  for  the  sale 
of  the  herds  we  had  captured  the  day  before. 

It  was  not  until  late  the  following  day  that  we 
reached  our  camp  after  nearly  a  one  hundred  and 
thirty-five  mile  ride,  and  found  that  during  our  absence 
several  others  of  the  gang,  unsns[)icions  of  danger, 
1  ad   come  in  to  headquarters  and  had  been  promptly 


APPENDIX.  313 

arrested.  We  now  had  thirty  prisoners  and  nearly 
two  thousand  head  of  cattle,  and  soon  we  were  on  our 
way  back  to  Fort  Kichardson.  The  duty  of  the  military 
part  of  the  expedition  was  now  practically  over.  We 
Lad  broken  up  and  captured  the  most  extensive  gang 
of  cattle  thieves  then  existing. 

But,  alas,  for  Texas  justice  !  In  my  opinion  the  chief 
was  too  well  supplied  with  money  to  remain  long  a 
j)risoner,  for  1  soon  heard  that  he  was  out  on  bail,  and 
although  I  had  made  many  inquiries,  I  never  heard  of 
one  of  the  lot  being  tried,  and  as  for  the  two  thousand 
cattle  we  were  put  to  so  much  trouble  in  collecting,  I 
have  grave  doubts  whether  the  original  owners  were 
ever  particularly  benefited  by  their  capture. 

THE   END. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

Page. 
Ofl  for    Carlii^le.      Fresh    Fish.      The    Barracks.      Fellow    Soldiers. 
Toughs.   Tattoo.      Taps.      The   Bounty    Jumper.      Bully  Welch. 
The  Routine  of  a  Day.     Flesh  Pots.     Humors.     Knapsacks  Packed, 
Oil"  for  the  Frontier 11 

CHAPTER  n. 

Oil'  for  Texas.  Through  Baltimore.  On  Board  tlie  Crescent.  A 
Tobacco  Famine.  The  Sea,  the  Sea.  Galveston  Bay.  Pelican 
Island.     The  Giant  Mosquito.    The  Army  Clerk.     Ontolndianola. .        19 

CHAPTER  in. 

Matagorda  Bay.     Lavacca.      The  Model  Railway.    Victoria.      Some 

Veterans.    The  Ox-cart.     The  Rauchero.     The  Voucher.     Goliad,.        28 

CHAPTER  IV. 

The  Greaser.     The  Cactus.     The  Prairie.     San  Antonio.     The  Alamo. 

The  Norther.     Climate.     Scenery.     On  the  Road.    Austin  at  Last. .        34 

CHAPTER  V. 

Austin.     The  Capitol.     Still  a  Recruit.     On  the  Road.    The  Leon.     The 

Brazos.     The  Six-shooter.     The  Frontiersman.     On  to  Jacksboro. . .        40 

CHAPTER  VI. 

The  Prairie  Fire .  Weatherford .  The  Last  Settlement .  Indian  Stories . 
The  Jack  of  Clubs.     Vanity.     Old  Paddy.     The  Frontier  as  it  Was. 

Jacksboro  '  'Twenty  Odd  Years  Ago 43 

CHAPTER  \n. 

The  Model  Jail.  The  Spade  Mightier  Than  the  Sword.  The  Picket 
House.     In  tlie  Woods.    The  Jack  Rabbit.     The  Cottontail.     The 

Affidavit  Man .    New  Duties 52 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
California  Jack ,  the  Argouaut .    The  Quicksand .   The  Tonkawa,  Captain 

Charley.     The  Little  Joker.    Pine  Top,  or  White  Mule 57 

CHAPTER  LX. 
Jacksboro  Abandoned— On  the  March.     The  Buffalo.     The  Sand  Burr. 

The  Tarantula .    Fort  Belknap •'- 


316  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  X. 

Pa(je. 
On  the   Brazos.    The  Orderly.     Analj'sis  Extraordinary.     Very  Salt 
Water.      Texas  Coal.      The  Cyclone.      The  Atmosphere.      Texas 
Kivers .     A  Fisliing  Excursion uy 

CHAPTER  XI. 

The  Centipede.  The  Scorpion.  The  Colonel  and  the  Sutler's  Clerk. 
The  Teuton.  "Put  Him  to  Pulling  Weeds.  "  Good-hyeto  Belknap. 
Jacksboro  Again 7(J 

CHAPTER  XJI. 

Sentimental  Humbug.  Hard  Tack.  '  'Forty  Centuries  are  Looking  on 
You  To-day."  Higli  Freiglit.  On  to  liuflalo  Springs.  The  Oldest 
Inhabitant  and  His  Foibles .     The  First  Sergeant 82 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

Red  Tape.  The  Company  Clerk.  The  Sick  Book.  Billy's  Sowl.  Gone 
to  Meet  Noah .  The  Treed  Steward .  The  Mammoth  Mule-Ear .  Bob 
Fawls.  "As  Large  as  a  Doe."  The  Glorious  Fourth.  Civilian 
Employes 87 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

Teamster  Killed.  The  Scout  Starts.  Indians!  Besieged.  The  War- 
Whoop.  Two  Nights  in  the  Corral.  The  Blunderbuss.  'UinnaYe 
Hear  It .^"    The  Major  "Marches  Home."    Reinforcements !)3 

CHAPTER  XV. 

Irregular  Mails.  "Only  a  Soldier. ' '  No  Romance  About  the  [Regulars. 
An  Electrical  Freak.  Drouth.  The  Stockade.  The  Spade  and  the 
Pick  Again.     Weak  Human  Nature  Exemplitied 101 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

The  Irishman.  The  Dog  Robber.  No  A^egetables.  The  "Red  Mus- 
tang." The  Good  Indian.  Swearing  Off.  Falling  From  Grace. 
Human  Nature  tlie  Same  in  or  Out  of  the  Army.  The  Snake  Bite. 
"Like  Cures  Like." 106 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

Monotony.  New  Quarters.  Texas  Game.  The  Antelope.  The 
' ' Spencer . ' '  Turkey  Hunting .  The  Cow  Hunter.  The  ' '  Bucking ' ' 
Pony.     The   "Cow-Brute." 112 

CHAPTER  XVin. 

Gambling.  Reflections.  "Taking  a  Blanket."  The  "Bob-Tall . "  A 
' '  Year  and  a  Butt . ' '  Indians  at  Jacksboro .  The  Crawford  Episode . 
The  Old  Piano 118 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

The  Old  Major.  The  "Regular's"  Opinion  of  the  Militiaman.  Buffalo 
Springs  Abandoned.  "Johnny-Come- Lately."  Hoofs  Instead  of 
Affidavits.  "California  Jack"  Lives  for  Months  on  Acorns  and 
Grows  Fat 125 


CONTENTS.  317 

CHAPTER  XX. 

P(i(fe. 
Camp  Dog:s.     Private  Blow  of  the  U.  S.  A.     Christmas.     The  "Hum- 
side.  ' '     Last  Night  at  P>uflalo  Springs \:V2. 

CHAPTER  XXI. 

Dn  tho  Road  in  the  Rain.  Swimming  a  Creole.  The  Wagon  Starts 
Toward  the  Gulf.  Lucy's  Peril.  Real  and  Ideal  Soldier  Life  Con- 
trasted.    Back  at  Jacksboro 138 

CHAPTER  XXII. 

The   New    Post.      St.   Patrick's    Day.      "No    Sunday    Until    Further 
C)rders."     Old  Paddy  Once  More.      Cooking  in  a   Wooden    Pail 
Tlie  "Unwound"  Comjtass.     Some  New  Zoology.     The  Brevet,  an 
' ' Empty  Honor.  " ' J44 

CHAPTER  XXIII. 

DeForrest's  Story  of  Colonel  Marcy's  Famous  March  Across  the  Moun- 
tains During  the  Albert  Sidney  Johnston  Expedition  in  1S.'»7 JaO 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 

The  Paymaster.     Results  of  Pay  Day.     The  Courtmartial.     The  Days  of 

"Reconstruction."   TheNewFort.    "Red-hot  Times"  in  Jacksboro.       15(3 

CHAPTER  XXV. 

Fort  Richardson.  Old  Rann.  "I'm  Too  Young  to  Marn,-.  Love." 
Brother  Patton.  Imiirovements.  The  Hospital.  The  Surgeon  and 
the  Acting  Surgeon.  Fishiug  for  a  Discharge.  A  "Sure  Cure"  for 
Chills 162 

CHAPTER  XXVI. 

The  Yankee  Machine.  The  Overland.  The  Palmy  Days  of  Staging. 
Sand-hill  George.  Lieutenant  Hill.  "Donigan."  The  Flea. 
' '  AVoman ,  "  a  Poem j  ci) 

CHAPTER  XXVII. 

A  Trip  to  San  Antonio.     On  Guard.     Failure  as  a  Cook.     Sunrise  on  the 

Prairie .    Waco .     The  '  'Bureau . ' '     The  ' ' Future  Great .  " 177 

CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

On  the  Road.  Recollections  of  Recruit  Da3-s.  Still  Another  "El-lum" 
Creek.  Through  Austin.  The  San  Marcos.  The  Hidalgo.  San 
Antonio  Revisited.     The  Chihuahua  Wagon 182 

CHAPTER  XXIX. 

"How?"  The  Tamale.  Chili-con-came.  The  Bull  Fight.  By  Stage 
to  Jacksboro.  Chaffee's  Guerrillas.  "Banes."  "Der  Bruer's 
Barty." 188 

CHAPTER  XXX. 

Courtsmartial.  General,  Field  Officers,  and  Garrison,  The  Guard- 
House  Lawyer.  The  Guard-House  Dog.  The  "Blind."  Below 
Par.     TheMarine.     "We'll  Fine  Him  Ten  Dollars,  Paul!" 195 


318  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XXXI. 

Pacje. 
"Looks  Like  a  Yearlin'  Had  Died  'Lougside  His  Plate. "     Old  Brindle. 

The  Great  American  Affidavit  Man .     The  ' '  Custom  of  the  Service . ' ' 

The  Board  of  Survey 202. 

CHAPTEK  XXXII. 

The  Sutler.  The  Company  Fund.  "Piggy''  Welsh.  The  Post  Fund. 
Sudsville.  The  Colored  Troops.  Extracts  From  The  Flea.  Was 
This  a  Frontier? 208. 

CHAPTER  XXXin. 

Good  Indians.  McLellan's  Fight.  Jim  Doshier.  The  Guide.  The 
Cadet.  WTiat  He  Knows  and  What  He  Don't  Know.  The  German 
and  the  Frenchman 215 

CHAPTER  XXXIV. 

Ed.  Wolflarth.  The  Pioneer.  California  Jack  Makes  His  Exit. 
"Living  on  Snow  for  Seventy-tAvo  Hours."  A  True  Hero.  The 
DeadMaich  222, 

CHAPTER  XXXV. 

Kew  Officers.  The  Company  Tailor.  Farewell  to  Texas.  Across  Red 
River.  The  Lone  Grave.  Fort  Sill.  Fine  Scenery.  En  Route  to 
Kansas .     The  ' '  Chisholm  Trail . ' '    The  Darwinian  Theory 229 

CHAPTER  XXXVI. 

Enforced  Sobriety.  The  Quaker  Experiment.  Good  Indians.  On  the 
March.  The  Bullwhacker.  Whoa,  Keuo!  The  Washita  Agency. 
The  Disputed  Boimdary 238 

CHAPTER  XXXVII. 

Still  on  the  March.  The  Washita.  The  Cheyenne  and  Arrapahoe 
Agency.  The  Sibley  Tent.  A  New  Motor.  The  Beef  Herd.  A 
Defense  of  the  Prairie  Dog.     Nearing  Kansas 245 

CHAPTER  XXXVIII 

Osage  Graves.  Oklahoma.  The  Boundary.  In  Kansas.  Plenty  of 
Whiskey.  In  the  Settlements.  School-houses.  Dugouts.  Across 
the  Arkansas .     Wichita.     Nearing  the  End 252 

CHAPTER  XXXIX. 

The  Model  City  Marshal.  Hedges.  Elk.  Planting  Trees.  Inman 
Lake.  Old  Ahrberg  Redevivus.  The  Red-hot  Town.  End  of  the 
Chisholm  Trail.     On  the  Smoky  Hill  River 258 

CHAPTER  XL. 

The  Bugler.  Army  Pudding.  The  Plains.  The  Last  March.  Fort 
Hays.  Discharged.  Fort  Riley.  Through  the  Territory  by  Stage. 
Bishop  Marvin.     The  Old-Time  Nigger.    Jacksboro  Once  More -6i 

CHAPTER  XLI 

General  Sherman's  Visit.  The  Massacre  of  Warren's  Teamsters. 
Arrest  of  Satanta,  Big  Tree  and  Other  Chiefs  at  Fort  Sill.  Kicking 
Bird  "Heaf)  Good  Indian."     Poetic  Description  of  Satanta 27i 


CONTENTS. 


319 


CIIAI'lER   XLII 

Poqr. 
•Sataiita  ami  Biji:  Trt'o  Conveyed  to  Jaeksboro.     Death  of  Salaiik .     Ttu" 

Faniou.s  Trial .     The  Jury.     Lauliani's  Great  Speech.     ThcNCrdiet.       170 
CHAPTElf  XLIH. 

8atanta's  Speech.  Sentence  Commuted.  In  tlie  Penitentiaiy.  Re- 
leased by  Governor  Davis.  Satanta  Reincarcerated.  If  is  Death. 
Military  Occiipation  at  an  End.  Fort  Richardson  Abandoned. 
Settling  lip  the  Country 2Sii 

CHAPTER  XLIV. 

18G5-1881).  The  Washington  Land  and  Copper  Company.  Tlie  State 
Rangers.  Joe  Horner.  The  Corporation.  Bill  Gilson.  An  Irre- 
l)ressible  Conflict -j'.i-i 

APPENDIX. 

The  Cowboj-s'  Verdict .'5ni 

Cattle  Thieving  in  Texas  :}07 


UNIYEBSITY   OF    CALIFORNIA    LIBRAEY, 
BERKELEY 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 

STAMPED   BELOW 

Books  not  returned  on  time  are  subject  to  a  fine  of 
50c  per  volume  after  the  third  day  overdue,  increasing 
to  $1.00  per  volume  after  the  sixth  day.  Books  not  in 
demand  may  be  renewed  if  application  is  made  before 
expiration   of  loan  period. 


OCT    22  19?9 


15te:i(521K 


SEP  mr^ , 

CIRCULATION  DEPT. 


^ 


<: 

T— 

liJ 

o 

cr. 

CD 

»J 

cjr 

- 

>- 

v~— 

IL. 

DC 

->J 

< 

^r 

< 

a: 

.^ 

o 

CD 

"" 

LL 

-J 

'•y^ 

o 

Ui 

> 

50m-7,'29 


462318 

r  o  ^7 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRAR> 


^^^^^^V^?x^^^^^^:^;■oov^>cvw5\\v^^^vcv^^^  :?" 


